"Grand Delusion draws on crucial new documentation to unravel the mystery of Hitler's invasion of Russia in 1941 and Stalin's enigmatic behaviour on the eve of the attack. Gabriel Gorodetsky challenges both the Russian revisionist view - that Stalin was about to invade Germany when Hitler made a preemptive strike, and the Cold War version popular in the West - that Stalin was simply outwitted.

Instead he shows Stalin as rational and level headed - though unscrupulous - pursuing well-defined geopolitical interests, actively negotiating for European peace."--BOOK JACKET. "Gorodetsky bases his argument on the most thorough scrutiny ever of Soviet archives for the period, including the files of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the General Staff, the security forces, and the entire range of military intelligence available to Stalin on the eve of 'Operation Barbarossa'."--BOOK JACKET.