The main argument Suvorov makes in Icebreaker, as well as in a series of other publications, starting from a short 1985 article[1] and ending with the 2008 monograph,[2] is that in 1930s, Stalin was planning a conquest of Europe, and he had been working toward this objective for many years.[3] Suvorov argues that the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was engineered by Stalin to provoke Hitler to start a conflict with Western powers,[4] which would have lead to mutual exhaustion of "capitalist powers". After that, Stalin planned to seize the opportune moment to attack Germany from the rear, overran Europe and put it under Soviet control.[4].