Grand Alliance

Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 and the United States’ entry into the war later that year created a coalition linking Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. The partners coordinated military strategy, industrial supply and diplomacy while fighting on separate but interdependent fronts.

The alliance relied on negotiations among Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, supported by diplomats, military missions and programmes such as Lend-Lease. Persistent disagreements concerned the timing of a second front, control of Eastern Europe, Poland and the shape of the postwar settlement.

The coalition defeated Nazi Germany but did not resolve the ideological and strategic conflicts among its members. This context supports books about wartime Moscow, Allied conferences, Soviet-Western diplomacy, aid negotiations and the transition from the Second World War to the Cold War.