How Soviet Russia prepared for WWII with Mark Harrison

The Industrialization of Soviet Russia

How Soviet Russia prepared for WWII with Mark Harrison

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Interview Timeline

Mark Harrison has been a historian studying the Soviet Union and the Soviet economy for many decades. We talked about his latest project, a book about the Soviet economy just prior to WWII which he co-authored. The Industrialization of Soviet Russia Volume 7 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)

0:51 – Mark talks about how he got into studying Soviet history and its economic history and how it pertains to WWII.

3:07 – Mark talks about how the book breaks down the subject and its place in a book series on Soviet history.

10:45 – Mark talks about how few people in the Soviet system wanted to make final decisions.

13:43 – Mark talks about how much control the central authority had over outlying areas of the Soviet Union.

18:45 – Mark talks about how a good harvest in the Soviet Union at this time hurt Stalin’s plans.

21:07 – Mark talks about how the Politburo decided how many armaments to make.

26:15 – Mark talks about how the Soviets were planning for massive future war. Stalin was also very worried about the fifth column and the “unconscious” enemy.

30:09 – Mark talks about Soviet strategy for future war.

34:05 – Mark talks about allied support to the Soviet Union and what the Soviets had expected.

39:15 – Mark talks about the various archives used for the research.

44:09 – Mark talks about Soviet and German record keeping and differences between Hitler’s and Stalin’s leadership styles.

49:18 – Mark talks about the Lithuanian KGB and archives about it.

53:29 – Mark talks about jet propulsion in the 1930s.

1:09:35 – Mark can be found by googling “Mark Harrison Warwick”. He also has a blog which can be found by googling the previous phrase and adding the word “blog.”

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/3eIEmvT

Book’s home page – www.palgrave.com/9781137362377

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Guests: Mark Harrison

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, Soviet Union, Germany, KGB, purges, agriculture, industrialization, WWII, world war two, Stalin, Hitler, Politburo, strategy

Check out this book here   https://amzn.to/3eIEmvT

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