Synopses & Reviews
Historians are in general agreement that the Russian war effort to defeat the invading Axis powers was the decisive factor for securing an Allied victory and ending World War II. Now with exclusive access to previously unavailable information from the former KGB, GRU, and Presidential archives, and with the full cooperation of Russian officials and historians, Richard Overy tackles the many persisting questions surrounding this conflict. Was Stalin a military genius? Was the defense of Mother Russia a product of something greater than numbers of tanks and planes -- of something deep within the Russian soul?
"Little, perhaps nothing, of the experience of most western readers and historians", Overy writes, "will have prepared them for what they will find in the history of Russia's war".
Synopsis
"A penetrating and compassionate book on the most gigantic military struggle in world history."--The New York Times Book Review
"An extraordinary tale... Overy's engrossing book provides extensive details of teh slaughter, brutality, bitterness and destruction on the massive front from the White Sea to the flank of Asia."--Chicago Tribune
The Russian war effort to defeat invading Axis powers, an effort that assembled the largest military force in recorded history and that cost the lives of more than 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians, was the decisive factor for securing an Allied victory. Now with access to the wealth of film archives and interview material from Russia used to produce the ten-hour television documentary Russia's War, Richard Overy tackles the many persuasive questions surrounding this conflict. Was Stalin a military genius? Was the defense of Mother Russia a product of something greater than numbers of tanks and planes--of something deep within the Russian soul?
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-384) and index.
About the Author
Richard Overy is Professor of Modern History at King's College, London. He has written extensively on modern German and European history, and is the author of Russia's War and The Penguin Atlas of the Third Reich.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
List of Maps and Tables
Preface
Introduction
1. The Darkness Descends: 1917-1937
2. The Hour Before Midnight: 1937-1941
3. The Goths Ride East: Barbarossa, 1941
4. Between Life and Death: Leningrad and Moscow
5. The Fight from Within: Collaboration, Terror and Resistance
6. The Cauldron Boils: Stalingrad, 1942-43
7. The Citadel: Kursk, 1943
8. False Dawn: 1943-44
9. Fall of the Swastika: 1945
10. The Cult of Personality: Stalin and the Legacy of War
Epilogue: Russia's War: Myth and Reality
References
Bibliography
Index