Britain's Two World Wars against Germany: Myth, Memory and the Distortions of...
Brian Bond's 'Britain's Two World Wars against Germany' is a slim volume that offers a somewhat in-depth look at the continued myths that cloud our history and memory of both World Wars when it comes...
View ArticleBarbarossa 1941: Reframing Hitler's Invasion of Stalin's Soviet Empire by...
Frank Ellis is something of a conundrum. His first book, “The Damned and the Dead: The Eastern Front through the Eyes of the Soviet and Russian Novelists,” was an interesting and insightful look at...
View ArticleInferno in Chechnya: The Russian-Chechen Wars, the Al Qaeda Myth, and the...
Brian Glyn Williams offers an in-depth and engaging account of Chechen history via their regular need to fight those attempting to subdue them and control their land. The accounts begin with Russian...
View ArticleWith Paulus at Stalingrad by Wilhelm Adam and Otto Ruhle
This text by Wilhelm Adam is a bit of a mixed bag. There is no doubt it was written with a bias that precluded any real "honest" commentary on what the author thought of the Red Army, Soviet...
View ArticleSecondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
Having read hundreds of books on the Soviet Union and today's Russia there are few that make the kind of impression that Alexievich's latest foray into the lives of generations of former Soviet men and...
View ArticleRollback: The Red Army's Winter Offensive along the Southwestern Strategic...
"Rollback: The Red Army's Winter Offensive along the Southwestern Strategic Direction, 1942-43" is a compilation of a few articles written by military authors and for internal military studies followed...
View ArticleAfter Stalingrad: Seven Years as a Soviet Prisoner of War by Adelbert Holl
I've read a few memoirs detailing German experiences in Soviet POW camps. Adelbert Holl's experiences, overall, offer an interesting insight into the Soviet POW and GULag system of camps....
View ArticleIn Wartime: Stories from Ukraine by Tim Judah
Tim Judah's "In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine" offers a good introductory look at the recent conflict that began in the shadow of the Sochi Winter Olympics. There are a few issues and weaknesses...
View ArticleEnemy in the East: Hitler's Secret Plans to Invade the Soviet Union by...
Although I say it often enough, there are still only a few books that surprise me when it comes to the Second World War, especially the Eastern Front. In this case, the book I'd compare this work to...
View ArticleWe Will Not Go to Tuapse: From the Donets to the Oder with the Legion...
I've read my share of memoirs of the Eastern Front, both from the Wehrmacht and the Red Army. "We will not go to Tuapse" is not one of the more memorable reminiscences but, as is usually the case,...
View ArticleRogue Heroes by Ben Macintyre
Ben Macintyre's 'Rogue Heroes' takes a look at the history of the SAS throughout the Second World War, concentrating on their exploits in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany. This is a...
View ArticleStalin's Commandos: Ukrainian Partisan Forces on the Eastern Front by...
"Stalin's Commandos" is in some sense a treasure trove of information. But western readers need to be aware of a few issues when attempting to tackle this monograph. First, Gogun is a Russian...
View ArticleKonev's Golgotha: Operation Typhoon Strikes the Soviet Western Front, October...
Mikhail Filippenkov's look at the beginning of Germany's Operation Typhoon (specifically the attack toward Sychevka) is more so oriented for the enthusiast of the Eastern Front than perhaps students of...
View ArticleThe Lands Between: Conflict in the East European Borderlands, 1870-1992 by...
Alexander Prusin's "The Lands Between" offers an excellent synthesis on the bordering territories that have seen so much death and destruction in the twentieth century. Similar to Kate Brown's "A...
View ArticlePanzer Operations: Germany's Panzer Group 3 During the Invasion of Russia,...
Hoth, at least in 1941 and 1942, was one of the original four commanders of German Panzer Groups/Armies who were responsible for the encirclements at Minsk, Smolensk, Uman, Kiev, Viazma and Briansk....
View ArticleAgents of Terror: Ordinary Men and Extraordinary Violence in Stalin's Secret...
We are coming up on the 80th anniversary of the start of Stalin's Great Purges. While much has been written on Stalinist repressions, there are still answers to prominent questions that continue to...
View ArticleArchitect of Soviet Victory in World War II: The Life and Theories of G.S....
Those familiar with the Soviet Union's military advances in the interwar period will undoubtedly have come across the name G. S. Isserson. Although often overlooked for more familiar personalities...
View ArticleLenin on the Train by Catherine Merridale
Catherine Merridale's "Lenin on the Train" is a bit difficult to categorize. This is not a monograph for academics or specialists, the lack of archival research and the limited citations means this is...
View ArticleWho Lost Russia?: How the World Entered a New Cold War by Peter Conradi
Peter Conradi's "Who Lost Russia?" asks a question many have pondered for the past decade (at least). In the wake of the end of the Cold War and the end of the Soviet Union it appeared that the United...
View ArticleSoviet Conquest: Berlin 1945 by Tony Le Tissier
"Soviet Conquest" features excerpts from six Red Army memoirs that detail their experiences in the Soviet offensive against Berlin. The most interesting, personally, turned out to be the reminiscences...
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