The Russian author - formerly a high-ranking officer in the Soviet military intelligence service GRU - became an insider and key witness to Stalin's systematic war plans against the German Reich in the 1930s and early 1940s. Soworow explains: 'Stalin hoped that Hitler and his opponents in the West would so weaken themselves in acts of war that Stalin could eventually simply overrun the exhausted West with aggression of his own. Hitler was intended to play the involuntary role of "icebreaker of the revolution". When Suvorov's most important book first appeared in Germany and France 20 years ago, it triggered a fierce controversy. Since then, Suvorov himself has become an "icebreaker", as his well-documented account has been taken up by many historians and is now backed up by countless other facts. D.