Stalin, the Russians, and their war
Subtitle: 1941-1945
By: Marius Broekmeyer ; translated by Rosalind Buck.
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Madison
Language: eng
Number of pages: 315
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945 -- Soviet Union
Description: Until the advent of glasnost began to lift censorship in the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s, it was impossible for Russians in Russia to truthfully depict their own struggle against Nazi Germany. Even before World War II was over, the Soviet propaganda machine began to construct an official story: through enormous sacrifice, the Soviet people had gloriously freed themselves and the world from fascism, raising the hammer and sickle higher than ever on the ruins of Hitler's imperialist dreams. In Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, however, Marius Broekmeyer presents the testimony of Russian participants, eyewitnesses, and historians of World War II to reveal not a heroic struggle, but a war marred by catastrophes, errors, and lies. These testimonies openly discuss subjects omitted from official Soviet propaganda or glossed over in popular Western histories of the Allied victory in WWIIfrom purges within the Red Army and Soviet use of "punitive brigades" to the deployment of millions of poorly equipped soldiers to the front lines. These are authentic and often shocking first-hand accounts. Such a vivid report on the day-to-day lives of Russian soldiers, officers, and citizens during World War II does not exist anywhere else in English.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-310) and index.
Table of contents: title: Between pact and war; title: War approaches; title: The beginning of the war; title: The mood in Moscow; title: Leningrad; title: The tide turns; title: The advance to Berlin; title: The people; title: Repression; title: The military; title: Ideas and views; title: Generals and victims; title: After the war; title: Shadrinsk.