| Abbreviations | xiii |
1 | Czechoslovak-Soviet Contacts from the End of World War I to Adolf Hitler's Machtergreifung, 1918-1933 | 3 |
| The Hillerson Red Cross Mission in Prague | 7 |
| Prague's Attitude toward the Bolsheviks | 11 |
| From Diplomacy to Confrontation | 18 |
2 | Dangerous Relations: Benes and Stalin in Hitler's Shadow, 1933-1935 | 33 |
| At Last: De Jure Recognition and Its Consequences | 36 |
| Benes's Ostpolitik | 40 |
| The Czechoslovak-Soviet Treaty of 1935 and Its Mysterious Stipulation | 44 |
| Prague's Pact with Moscow | 50 |
| The Aftermath of Czechoslovakia's Agreement with the Soviet Union | 51 |
| Stalin's Wooing of Edvard Benes: The 1935 Trip to Moscow | 52 |
| Stalin Was "Gracious, Thoughtful, Accommodating," | 55 |
3 | Between the Agile East and the Apathetic West: Central Europe, 1935-1937 | 67 |
| The CPC and the 7th Congress of the Comintern | 68 |
| Czechoslovakia and the Frigid West | 79 |
| "Lord Halalifax," | 81 |
4 | Benes and the Tukhachevsky Affair: New Evidence from the Archives in Prague and Moscow | 91 |
| Znamia Rossii and Other Tremors before the Earthquake | 92 |
| Tukhachevsky and the Secret Negotiations between Prague and Berlin | 96 |
| President Edvard Benes and the Tukhachevsky Affair | 99 |
5 | The Fateful Spring of 1938: Austrian Anschlu[beta] and the May Crisis | 113 |
| From the Death of Thomas G. Masaryk to New Year's Day 1938 | 116 |
| The Anschlu[beta] of Austria | 119 |
| Czechoslovakia after the Anschlu[beta] | 126 |
| Moscow's Reaction to the Anschlu[beta] | 130 |
| Konrad Henlein's Eight Points: Demand the Impossible | 139 |
| May Day 1938: Gottwald in Moscow, Henlein in the Sudetenland | 141 |
| The Partial Mobilization of May 1938 | 143 |
| The May Mobilization and Analysts of the Second Bureau | 148 |
6 | Lord Runciman and Comrade Zhdanov: Western and Soviet Policies Toward Czechoslovakia from June to Early September 1938 | 173 |
| France: Firm Statements of Support on Shaky Foundations | 174 |
| Great Britain Takes Charge | 177 |
| The British Intervention: Lord Runciman in Prague | 179 |
| The Three-Pronged Soviet Strategy from June to Early September 1938 | 190 |
7 | September 1938 | 209 |
| Hitler at Nuremberg and a State of Emergency in the Sudetenland | 209 |
| Berchtesgaden: A Step to Munich | 214 |
| The Franco-British Proposal | 218 |
| Prague's Response to the Proposal and the Soviet Union | 223 |
| The Franco-British Ultimatum and Its Consequences | 225 |
| Godesberg: The Last Missed Opportunity | 233 |
| Folding the Flag: From the Sportpalast to Munich | 242 |
| The Yawning Affair at Munich | 249 |
| Agony in Prague | 253 |
| The Man Who Won at Munich: Stalin and the Four Power Act | 256 |
| The Victims of the Munich Agreement | 260 |
| Sources and Bibliography | 277 |
| Index | 311 |