Stalin's Reluctant Soldiers: A Social History of the Red Army, 1925-1941 (Modern War Studies)
In June 1941, the Soviet Army was the largest in the world and had a huge supply of advanced mechanical equipment. Yet within a few months, it would be all but destroyed by a numerically inferior Wehrmacht, suffering over 5,000,000 casualties and prisoners. What happened? Conventional wisdom and studies blame the infamous purges of high level military officers of 1937-38, as well as Stalin's intransigence in tactical and strategic matters. Reese's unique study, however, starts from the bottom up. He shows how this huge crowd of conscripts, mostly semiliterate peasants and largely disaffected, were closer to a rabble than an army. With recently released statistics, he shows how most of the army members who were technically trained to employ and maintain the new equipment had been drafted back into Stalin's industrial expansion efforts. Another interesting sidelight is Stalin's dissolution in 1935 of the territorial (part-time reserve) forces. These could have filled gaps in the undermanned regulars (often only 40%-60% of authorized strength) and possibly helped to stem the German tide. This thoughtful and well-written work is full of detail and statistics not found elsewhere. It is an intriguing study and a fast read for both the scholar and the layperson. Photos not seen by PW.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.