‘Stalin was greatest leader of the war’

Press, 24 August 1976, Page 8

‘Stalin was greatest leader of the war’

NZPA London The Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin, was the greatest leader of World War II and one of the ablest men of the twentieth century, the eminent English historian, A. J. P. Taylor, said yesterday. But Taylor also said that Stalin was a monster . , . prepared to kill millions. Taylor, author of such works as "The Origins of the Second World War,”

published in 1961. was talking with a British reporter about a documentary on Stalin which he has prepared for showing by the 8.8. C.

The documentary, to be shown on 8.8. C. television tomorrow, is the fourth of six programmes in which Taylor assesses the great • leaders of World War 11. The series is called “The War Lords”. - Asked by a reporter for . the Press Association, Brit- . ain’s domestic news agency, to rank Stalin among the i war leaders that included ’ Winston Churchill and ’ Franklin Roosevelt, Taylor said the Soviet dictator was the greatest. “He had complete control,” Taylor said. “He sat in the Kremlin, on the end of the phone. Everyone had to give his opinions and then he ran every front. He made a lot of mistakes at first, of course, but really it was all quite staggering.” A part of Taylor’s narration for the programme says: “Stalin alone made every great decision throughout the war and many of the small ones as well. Unlike every commander ever known, he literally ran every front himself.” The historian said it was the single-minded drive of Stalin—who died on March 5, 1953, at 73 — that made the Soviet Union a world power. “Russia reached the top, practically on a level with America, through his iron • will,” Taylor said. “He was prepared to drive ■ over everyone, to kill mill lions, s sort of Genghis Khan or Attila. But without

the slightest doubt, it was he who made Russia a world power and produced the biggest shift in the world balance. “People can argue,” the historian said, “that it could have been done another way. | through some Communist

idealism, but the fact is he did it.” Asked if Stalin would go down in history as a monster or a man of enormous ability, Taylor replied: “Both.” “It is curious though that to foreigners who met him he was a very sympathetia character, attractive, modest, readily interested in whal ■ they were talking about. They came away saying what an attractive man . . . odd”.