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Drawing on astonishing unpublished diaries, letters and secret reports, Giles Milton’s The Stalin Affair reveals troves of new material about the most unlikely coalition in history.

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 mobilised a unique team of remarkable diplomats with the mission of keeping the Red Army in the war.

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

August 1941. Churchill meets Roosevelt in Newfoundland and they sign the Atlantic Charter. They agree to send a delegation to Stalin to build a necessary but disagreeable relationship. Averell Harriman and Lord Beaverbrook are sent to Moscow, where they are initially treated with suspicion by Stalin. Eventually, his attitude towards them mellows and a banquet is thrown in their honour. With Moscow under heavy bombardment by German forces, all foreign nationals (including embassy staff) are moved to the city of Kuibyshev – many hundreds of miles east of the capital.

Read by Nigel Anthony
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: David Blount

A Pier production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4