The Stalin affair

‘Delivered with flamboyance, it features a sparkling cast of chancers’ KATJA HOYER, Daily Telegraph 5* review

From internationally bestselling historian Giles Milton comes the remarkable true story of the Allies’ secret mission to wartime Moscow.

In the summer of 1941, as Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin’s forces faced a catastrophic defeat which would make the Allies’ liberation of Europe virtually impossible. To avert this disaster, Britain and America mobilized an elite team of remarkable diplomats with the mission of keeping the Red Army in the war.

Into to the heart of Stalin’s Moscow Roosevelt sent Averell Harriman, the fourth richest man in America and his brilliant young daughter Kathy. Churchill dispatched the reckless but brilliant bon vivant Archie Clark Kerr – and occasionally himself – to negotiate with the Kremlin’s wiliest operators. Together, this improbable group grappled with the ingenious, mercurial Stalin to make victory possible. But they also discovered that the Soviet dictator had a terrifying masterplan for the post-war world.

Based on astonishing unpublished diaries, letters and secret reports, The Stalin Affair reveals troves of new material about the most unlikely coalition in history.

*Giles Milton’s The Stalin Affair was a Radio 4 Book of the Week in the week of 17th June 2024.*