A lesson learned from THE STALIN AFFAIR: THE IMPOSSIBLE ALLIANCE THAT WON THE WAR, by Giles Milton

Sometimes, to defeat a greater enemy, you have to compromise with people you might detest.

    That historical lesson is a common takeaway from the Allied victory in World War II, and it was absolutely true as the Americans, British, and Soviets all had to tolerate some fairly awful behavior from their allies in order to defeat the evil of Nazi Germany. In his relatively brief, page-turning study of the Allies, Giles Milton in The Stalin Affair focuses on studying the alliance through the eyes of the American diplomat W. Averell Harriman and his entourage. Needing to work with unsavory characters is a tried-and-true lesson of many historical movements, but it was especially true when trying to destroy the monstrosity of fascism. Milton's book claims to tell the story of how FDR, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin set aside differences and old animosities to work together to win the war, but he overwhelmingly focuses on the unique characters of Churchill and Stalin, two uniquely talented and damaged individuals who suddenly found the fate of the world in their hands.

    When I was growing up in the 1990's, Churchill was presented in many of my History classes as an unabashed hero of WWII, similar to Woodrow Wilson back in WWI (whose wildly up-and-down historical reputation I've written about before). He has undergone a significant reevaluation in recent decades, given his generally disastrous pre-WWII career and his love of imperialist adventures (I'm sure one day I'll pick up a more in-depth study of him)! In Milton's book, Churchill is a true character who veers wildly back and forth between visionary and lovable, and a bit drunken and unhinged. When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Churchill put aside a lifelong hatred of Communism to immediately announce the British Empire would give whatever aid it could against the Nazis. In his subsequent negotiations with Stalin, Churchill could some days be accommodating and sympathetic, other days calculating and erratic (one story Milton describes that especially stood out to me was a secret agreement where Churchill basically tried to hammer out an agreement with Stalin how much control he could have over Eastern European countries, those countries' own wishes be damned). As complicated of a figure as Churchill could be, he had nothing on the terrifying Joseph Stalin, who remains an historical enigma. Western powers found him a strange chameleon of a man, who could be incredibly charming and thoughtful to those he respected, while absolutely cold and ruthless to those whom he did not. FDR is something of a side character in Milton's book, coming off as the most moral and respectable of the Allied leaders, while also being somewhat naive and ill-prepared for the realities of imperialist negotiations.

     Milton's book is not a particularly in-depth one, but a very quick and readable one that is absolutely accessible to the masses. It's filled with fun and fascinating tangents such as the various sexual and drunken shenanigans of the Allies' diplomatic teams, as well as brief appearances from truly odious and terrifying characters such as Stalin's enforcer Lavrentiy Beria (a man whose brutality and amorality could occasionally rattle even hardened WWII fighters). One lesson from Milton's book that feels relevant to our current world is the cold reality that when people are fighting the great evil of fascism, you sometimes have to be willing to work with anyone who is willing to help the cause, regardless of reservations over background and morality. The Soviet Union was a brutal power capable of great crimes, yet the Allies almost certainly could not have won WWII without their help and sacrifices, and any objections to their crimes had to be put aside until the Allies could defeat Hitler. In our modern world, he can try to be better and try to elevate people who are truly moral and intellectual pillars, even as there are times we will need help from unsavory characters we would rather not associate with, and fight for justice and accountability once the greater threat has been defeated.