Stalin, Joseph -- At five feet, five inches in height, Joseph Stalin was the small, unassuming-looking dictator of the Soviet Union. Yet he was the absolute ruler of some 180 million people, whose empire spanned across Europe and Asia from Poland to the Pacific Ocean. After suffering humiliating defeats by Hitler on the Russian front in 1941 - 1942, Stalin's Red Army systematically vanquished the Nazis in Eastern Europe as far west as Berlin. At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, when an American mentioned this achievement, Stalin replied matter-of-factly that Czar Alexander had gotten to Paris. Inevitably, Stalin's allies were left to decipher his postwar intentions. Soviet expansionism lurked behind them all and was the political motive that prevented the Russians from engaging in meaningful peace agreements. In Moscow in 1947, Secretary of State George Marshall found Stalin to be "completely evasive" about substantive issues, while maintaining a calm and gracious exterior. "Stalin's greatness as a dissimulator was an integral part of his greatness as a statesman," wrote Russian expert George Kennan. "An unforewarned visitor would never have guessed what depths of calculation, ambition, love of power, jealousy, cruelty, and sly vindictiveness lurked behind this unpretentious facade." Text and photo Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

Rare War Dated Typed Letter Signed provided by the  Gallery of Fame

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Certified Translation Letter Scan 1

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In June 1942, the Germans launched a new drive directed against Stalingrad (now called Volgograd) and the Caucasus petroleum fields. In the midst of this counteroffensive Stalin took the time to answer three pointed questions about US-Soviet relations just before the turning point of World War II.

 Less than three months after this letter was written Stalingrad held out, and on Feb. 2, 1943 the surrender of 330,000 Axis troops there marked a turning point in the war.

 This exceptional war dated Stalin letter comes with a certified translation by N. Palgunov, the Chief Press Department, of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs.