Review: Ukrainian Freedom Fighters and History Repeating Itself
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 21, 2014
“All Quiet on the Western Front” was required reading in high school, and I remember being moved to tears by that account of the life of a common soldier in the killing fields separating France and Germany. This gripping historical novel by author Scott Bury takes the action to the Ukraine in World War II, following the dreadful experiences of a few poorly equipped soldiers as they are hemmed in by the Germans and their relentless killing machine.Seas of mud conspire with faulty, outdated weapons to make the Ukrainians’ situation more and more desperate. The only thing holding them together is their fierce personal bonds, forged in school days and reinforced by their common language and culture. Their Russian commanders seem oblivious to the hopelessness of the situation, or else resigned to it. The Ukrainian soldiers experience moments of blank terror as they stare down certain death. Ahead of them the German mechanized divisions keep rolling forward, crossing rivers, their turret guns blazing, seemingly invincible, while behind them their superiors keep a lookout for deserters, guns at the ready.With the fighting in Ukraine today, as Russia exerts its power in the Eastern part of the country, “Army of Worn Soles” could not be more topical. The seeds of the defiance we see in today’s Ukrainian soldiers were surely sown by the grandfathers who gave their lives seventy years ago. History is doomed to repeat itself, a message that comes through loud and clear in this short, beautifully written novel.