This is a select bibliography of English language books (including translations) and journal articles about the Soviet Union during the Second World War, the period leading up to the war, and the immediate aftermath. For works on Stalinism and the history of the Soviet Union during the Stalin era, please see Bibliography of Stalinism and the Soviet Union.

Works listed here are cited in the notes or bibliographies of scholarly sources. Each is published by an academic or major press, written by a recognized expert, or substantially reviewed in scholarly journals; borderline cases are omitted. A selection of primary sources are included. Many of the books below carry their own bibliographies; see the Further reading section for other bibliographies, and the External links section for historical sites, academic sites, and museums.

Citations follow APA style. Book have citations to academic journal or mainstream published reviews when available. For books only partly about the subject, relevant chapter or section titles are provided when useful and available. Translators of the original-language edition are included when possible. In cases where a title or name has appeared with more than one English spelling, the most recent published form is used and a footnote documents any earlier title under which the work appeared.

General works

Buttar, P. (2015). Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. David-Fox, M., Holquist, P., & Martin, A. M. (2012). Fascination and Enmity: Russia and Germany as entangled histories, 1914–1945. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Glantz, D. M. (2014). Stalin’s Strategic Intentions, 1941–1945: Soviet Military Operations as Indicators of Stalin’s Postwar Territorial Ambitions. The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 27(4), 676–720. Goldman, S. D. (2013). Nomonhan, 1939: The Red Army's Victory that Shaped World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. Harrison, M. (2009). Soviet Planning in Peace and War, 1938-1945 (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harrison, M. (2010). Accounting for War: Soviet Production, Employment, and the Defence Burden, 1940-1945 (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hill, A. (2017). The Red Army and the Second World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Linz, S. J. (1985). The Impact of World War II on the Soviet Union. Totowa: Rowman & Allanheld. Merridale, C. (2007). Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939–1945. New York: Metropolitan Books. Noggle, A. (2007). A Dance with Death: Soviet Airwomen in World War II. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. Rieber, A. J. (2022). Stalin as Warlord. New Haven: Yale University Press. Roberts, G. (2011). Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953. New Haven: Yale University Press. Roberts, G. (2008). Stalin's Victory?: The Soviet Union and World War II. History Ireland, 16(1), 42–48. Shearer, D. (2018). Stalin at War, 1918-1953: Patterns of Violence and Foreign Threat. Jahrbücher Für Geschichte Osteuropas, 66(2), 188–217. Weiner, A. (2012). Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Spanish Civil War

Beevor, A. (2014). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. New York: Penguin Books. Cox, Geoffrey (1937). Defence of Madrid. Victor Gollancz, London, (2006 Otago University Press edition) Hooton, E. R. (2019). Spain in Arms: A Military History of the Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. Philadelphia, PA: Casemate Books. Krammer, A. (1973). Spanish Volunteers against Bolshevism: The Blue Division. The Russian Review, 32(4), 388–402. Payne, S. G. (2012). The Spanish Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Preston, P. (2016). The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge. London: William Collins. Thomas, H. (1977). The Spanish Civil War. New York: HarperCollins. Volkova, I. (2020). Spanish Republicans' Struggle and Its Impact on the Soviet Wartime Generation. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 21(2), 327–346.

The Nazi-Soviet alliance (1939—1941)

(report from Finland on the Winter War) Hiden, J., & Lane, T. (2011). The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kornat, M. (2009). Choosing Not to Choose in 1939: Poland's Assessment of the Nazi-Soviet Pact. The International History Review, 31(4), 771–797. Rentola, K. (2013). Intelligence and Stalin's Two Crucial Decisions in the Winter War, 1939–40. The International History Review, 35(5), 1089–1112. Moorhouse, R. (2014). The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939–1941. New York: Basic Books. Moorhouse, R. (2020). Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II. New York: Basic Books. Roberts, G. (1990). The Unholy Alliance: Stalin's Pact with Hitler. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Sanford, G. (2005). Katyn and the Soviet Massacre of 1940: Truth, Justice and Memory. New York: Routledge. Toczewski, A. (1992). Cooperation Between the Soviet Union and the Third Reich in Exchanges of Polish Population and Prisoners of War in the Years 1939-1941. The Polish Review, 37(2), 209–215. Uldricks, T. J. (1977). Stalin and Nazi Germany. Slavic Review, 36(4), 599–603. Uldricks, T. J. (1999). The Icebreaker Controversy: Did Stalin Plan to Attack Hitler?. Slavic Review, 58(3), 626–643. Watson, D. (2000). Molotov's Apprenticeship in Foreign Policy: The Triple Alliance Negotiations in 1939. Europe-Asia Studies, 52(4), 695–722. Watson, D. (2002). Molotov, The Making of the Grand Alliance and the Second Front 1939-1942. Europe-Asia Studies, 54(1), 51–85.

NaziSoviet War

These works focus on Soviet experiences and operations from the Soviet perspective; see also Bibliography of World War II. Beevor, Antony. (1998). Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942–1943. New York: Penguin Books. Bellamy, C. (2007). Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War. New York: Knopf. Erickson, John. (1975). The Road to Stalingrad, Stalin's War with Germany, Volume 1, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1975, 1983 Erickson, John. (1983).The Road to Berlin. Stalin's War with Germany, Volume 2, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1983 Exeler, F. (2022). Ghosts of War: Nazi Occupation and Its Aftermath in Soviet Belarus. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Glantz, D. M. (1991). From the Don to the Dnepr: Soviet Offensive Operations. New York: Routledge. Glantz, D. M. (2009). After Stalingrad: The Red Army's Winter Offensive, 1942–1943. Warwick: Helion and Company Glantz, D. M. (2009). Stalingrad (3 vols.). Lawrence: University Press of Kansas Glantz, D. M. (2010/2012/2014). Barbarossa Derailed (3 vols.). Warwick: Helion and Company. Glantz, D. M. (2011). Operation Barbarossa: Hitler's Invasion of Russia, 1941. Cheltenham: History Press. Glantz, D. M., & House, J. M. (2015). When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. Hardesty, V., & Grinberg, I. (2019). Red Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. Hargreaves, R. (2026). 1942: Hitler's Gamble for Victory. Osprey Publishing. Harvey, A. (2018). The Russian Air Force Versus the Luftwaffe: A Western European View. Air Power History, 65(1), 23–30. Overy, R. (1997). Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941–1945. New York: Penguin Books. Snyder, T. (2010). Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books.

The Soviet homefront during World War II

Barber, J., & Harrison, M. (1991). The Soviet Home Front, 1941-1945: A Social and Economic History of the USSR in World War II. London: Longman. Bidlack, R. (2000). The Political Mood in Leningrad during the First Year of the Soviet-German War. The Russian Review, 59(1), 96–113. Braithwaite, R. (2010). Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War. London: Profile Books. Collingham, E. M. (2013). The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food. New York: Penguin Books. Garrard, J., & Garrard, C. (1993). World War 2 and the Soviet People. New York: Macmillan. Goldman, W. Z., & Filtzer, D. (2021). Fortress Dark and Stern: The Soviet Home Front during World War II. New York: Oxford University Press. Jekelʹčyk, S. O. (2014). Stalin's Citizens: Everyday Politics in the Wake of Total War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kragh, M. (2011). Soviet Labour Law during the Second World War. War in History, 18(4), 531–546. Manley, R. (2012). To the Tashkent Station: Evacuation and Survival in the Soviet Union at War. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Reid, A. (2012). Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941–1944. New York: Walker & Company. Stites, R. (1995). Culture and Entertainment in Wartime Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Thurston, R. W., & Bonwetsch, B. (2000). The People's War: Responses to World War II in the Soviet Union. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Weiner, A. (1996). The Making of a Dominant Myth: The Second World War and the Construction of Political Identities within the Soviet Polity. The Russian Review, 55(4), 638–660. Yekelchyk, S. (2014). Stalin’s Citizens: Everyday Politics in the Wake of Total War. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The Allies and the Soviet Union in World War II

Butler, S. (2016). Roosevelt and Stalin: Portrait of a Partnership. New York: Vintage Books. Fischer, G. (1950). Genesis of U. S.-Soviet Relations in World War II. The Review of Politics, 12(3), 363–378. Haas, M. L. (2022). An Unrealized Frenemy Alliance: Britain's and France's Failure to Ally with the Soviet Union, 1933–39. In Frenemies: When Ideological Enemies Ally (pp. 69–121). Cornell University Press. Havlat, D. (2017). Western Aid for the Soviet Union During World War II: Part I. The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 30(2), 290–320. Havlat, D. (2017). Western Aid for the Soviet Union During World War II: Part II. The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 30(4), 561–601. Herring, G. (1969). Lend-Lease to Russia and the Origins of the Cold War, 1944-1945. The Journal of American History, 56(1), 93–114. Hett, B. C. (2020). The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War. New York: Henry Holt and Company. Hill, A. (2007). British Lend-Lease Aid and the Soviet War Effort, June 1941–June 1942. The Journal of Military History 71(3), 773–808. Kelly, J. (2020). Saving Stalin: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, and the Cost of Allied Victory. Hachette: Hachette Books. Kettenacker, L. (1982). The Anglo-Soviet Alliance and the Problem of Germany, 1941-1945. Journal of Contemporary History, 17(3), 435–458. Mayers, D. (2011). The Great Patriotic War, FDR's Embassy Moscow, and Soviet—US Relations. The International History Review, 33(2), 299–333. Munting, R. (1984). Lend-Lease and the Soviet War Effort. Journal of Contemporary History, 19(3), 495–510. Munting, R. (1984). Soviet Food Supply and Allied Aid in the War, 1941-45. Soviet Studies, 36(4), 582–593. Neiberg, M. S. (2015). Potsdam: The End of World War II and the Remaking of Europe. New York: Basic Books. Plokhy, S. M. (2014). Yalta: The Price of Peace. New York: Penguin Books. Preston, D. (2020). Eight Days at Yalta: How Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Shaped the Post-War World. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. Reynolds, D., & Pechatnov, V. (2019). The Kremlin Letters: Stalin's Wartime Correspondence with Churchill and Roosevelt. New Haven: Yale University Press. Watson, D. (2000). Molotov's Apprenticeship in Foreign Policy: The Triple Alliance Negotiations in 1939. Europe-Asia Studies, 52(4), 695–722. Watson, D. (2002). Molotov, The Making of the Grand Alliance and the Second Front 1939-1942. Europe-Asia Studies, 54(1), 51–85.

Genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes