Grand delusion : Stalin and the German invasion of Russia / Gabriel Gorodetsky.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 324-393) and index.

Introduction: The premises of Stalin's foreign policy -- -- 'Potential enemies': London and Moscow at Loggerheads -- 'The truce of the bear' -- 'He who sups with the devil' -- Cripps's mission to Moscow -- -- The scramble for the Balkans -- Soviet-Italian collusion -- The soviet seizure of Bessarabia -- British schemes for the Balkans -- The Vienna award: The German encroachment in the Balkans -- Clash over the Danube -- -- On a collision course -- Drang nach Osten: The initial Plans -- Soviet intelligence and the German threat -- The bulgarian corridor to the Turkish straits -- -- The road to 'Barbarossa' -- Molotov's visit to Berlin -- Hitler opts for war -- Postcript: Preventive war? -- -- The curtan falls on the Balkans -- The British perspective: co-operation or embroilment? -- Bulgaria turns to the axis -- The urge for the straits -- -- The red army alert -- The Soviet defence plans -- The bankruptcy of the military -- The gathering clouds -- -- At the crossraods: The Yugoslav Coup d'Etat -- -- Churchill's warning to Stalin -- British intelligence and 'Barbarosa' -- The 'cryptic' warning -- Rumours of war and a separate peace -- The bogy of a separate peace -- Aftermath -- -- Japan: The avenue to Germany -- -- 'Appeasement': A new German-Soviet pact? -- -- "The special threatening military period' -- On the alert -- Emergency deployment -- -- The flight of Rudolf Hess to England -- The conspiracy -- The mission -- Fictitious negotiations -- 'Running the Bolshevik hare' -- Hess as perceived by the Kremlin -- -- On the eve of war -- 'Mobilization is war!' -- A Middle East diversion: The flaw in British intelligence -- The tass Communique -- -- Calamity -- Self-deception -- London: 'This avalanche breathing fire and death' -- 22 June 1941: The long weekend -- Conclusion