Finest Hour Extra: Depictions of Churchill in Russian Propaganda By YURIY UMANSKY The news media in Russia past and present has had much to say about Winston Churchill. It has [&he...
By Yuriy Umansky Yuriy Umansky, a former journalist and Churchill’s biography researcher in Ukraine, now lives in Vancouver, B.C. Churchill had hated Bolshevism since 1917, calli...
The Art of Being Winston Churchill: Dining with Stalin By BARRY SINGER Winston Churchill’s singular capacity for food, alcohol, and dinner conversation was tested to its limits i...
80th Anniversary of Pivotal Battle By ROBERT A. MCLAIN Much has already been said about Winston Churchill’s views on Russia, as well as his relationship with Joseph Stalin. As An...
Towards the end of 1943, the ‘Big Three’ met for the first time – they hadn’t all been together before – in Teheran. It was to be a momentous conference. […]...
The war ground slowly on. In late 1941 and 1942, disaster followed disaster as Germany and their Japanese allies gained the upper hand. On Christmas Day 1941, Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese, with Singapore falling only a few weeks later, on 15 February 1942; Rangoon followed soon after. Japan moved on to threaten Australia. In Greece, the Mediterranean and north Africa the situation was no better. Tobruk, in north Africa, fell to the German forces. Churchill flew to Cairo to change Middle East command on 2 August, replacing General Auchinleck with General Alexander, and putting General Montgomery in command of the British Eighth Army. On 12 August 1942, Churchill flew to Moscow for his first meeeting with Stalin, to tell him that the western Allies weren’t in a position to attack in Europe that year – they didn’t have sufficient resources – and would instead focus on forcing German retreat from north Africa. Stalin was always against this strategy and continued to argue that a western, European invasion was the only way to defeat Germany (and to relieve pressure on Soviet forces fighting in the east). It will perhaps seem surprising to future generations to know that Churchill faced two votes of no confidence in his government in January and July 1942. Though he won them easily, they show that Britain was not always united and that Churchill remained answerable to the will of Parliament.
