This study analyzes Moscow's response to the rise of Hitler, explains the origins of the Nazi-Soviet pact, and charts the road to Operation Barbarossa and the disaster of the surprise German attack on the USSR in June 1941.

1. Introduction: Conflicting Views on the USSR and the Origins of the Second World War -- 2. From Co-operation to Confrontation: The End of Rapallo and the Turn to Collective Security, 1933-1935 -- 3. Confrontation versus Compromise: Dilemmas of Coexistence with Nazi Germany, 1935-1937 -- 4. To the Brink of War: The Czechoslovakian Crisis of 1938 -- 5. From Confrontation to Conciliation: Origins of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1938-1939 -- 6. The Nazi-Soviet Pact and the Partition of Poland -- 7. Expansion and Coexistence, 1939-1940 -- 8. Crisis and Conflict, 1940-1941 -- 9. Stalin and the Road to War, April-June 1941 -- 10. Conclusion.