Product Description

RUSSIA'S WAR is the epic account of the greatest military encounter in human history. In a vivid, often shocking narrative, Richard Overy describes the astounding events of 1941-45 in which the Soviet Union, after initial catastrophes, destroyed Hitler's Third Reich and shaped European history for the next half Century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39789 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
As German armies stampeded through the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, Nazi politicians and Western statesmen alike predicted the former U.S.S.R's collapse. In Russia's War, a balanced and acute portrayal of a combat theatre that claimed more than 40 million Soviet lives, Richard Overy tells the story of how Stalin and his commanders held off defeat and engineered the most significant military achievement of the Second World War: the destruction of the Wehrmacht.

Russia's War is far from a tale of triumph, as the Russian capacity for resourceful creativity, desperate courage and raw endurance was matched, if not exceeded, by the brutal oppression of the Soviet system. Overy argues, however, that victory was the result of precisely this uneasy combination. Drawing from extensive archival sources made available in the wake of Glasnost, he revises both our conception of the Red Army as a horde that overwhelmed the Germans and the accepted wisdom that Hitler's defeat was the result of strategic bungling and a logistical overreach of the Nazi forces. Perhaps his most poignant contribution is the discussion of the crisis that recent disclosures have provoked in the Russian understanding of the conflict. What was once viewed as the "Great Patriotic War" has become "a crucible of miserable and incomprehensible revelations." In spite of these confusions, Russia's War commences to find significance in a contest that repeatedly disquiets and humbles the historical imagination. --James Highfill

About the Author
Richard Overy is Professor of Modern History at King's College, London. He is also the author of "The Road to War".

Customer Reviews

A superb account of a remarkable victory
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is not only a thoroughly researched work of scholarship, but a brillantly written and engrossing narrative of how Russia succeded in defeating the Nazi war machine, hitherto the most formidable and effective military force in world history. Since the cessetion of the Cold War, and building on the work of scholars such as John Erickson and David Glantz, there has been a fundamental reassessment of the Russian experience in the Second World War. This book indicates that the Russian victory was underpinned by an ability to mobilise the entire nation and economy, often by brutal means, into a total war. Neither are the Russians presented as a homgeneous horde, as they were in earlier works, but as a complex mosaic of differening ethnicities and political persuasions.
This book challenged my previous belief that the German army came close to total victory within the first year, and that if Moscow had fallen then it would have been virtually sealed. In fact, much of the population and industrial production had already been relocated far beyond Moscow in the Urals, and given the Russian capacity for flexible defensive strategies and a developing capacity to launch counter offensives, the obstacles that stood in the way of a German victory begin to look daunting. Overy makes it clear that Stalin made an fatal miscalcualtion in his belief that Germany would not make war with Russia before the spring of 1942, and the sheer ease of the German victories in the weeks following Barbarossa must be seen as a consequence of a total lack of preparedness of the Red Army. After the initial shock (and enormous losses) brought about by the invasion, the expanding Russian mobilization and increasingly over-stretched German army began to favour a Soviet triumph.
This book analyses the multiple levels of the conflict, from the political intrigue between Stalin and his generals, to the perspectives of the ordinary Russian, who endured unspeakable hardships in the name of defence of the motherland. The Russian-German conflict of 1941-45 was the largest and most costly in history, it also shaped the nature of post-war politics. This excellent book captures the scale and importance of the conflict, and provides scope for reflection in its examination of the divide between patriotism and propaganda and sobering recollections of the terrible acts of brutality that took place.

Blunting Hitler
The titanic struggle of the Soviet Union against Hitler's invasion is a tale written in pain. Over 20 million were to die, a figure which surpasses comprehension. Overy provides a masterly account of the invasion, the struggle for survival, and the eventual victory. War on such a vast scale would require many tomes to describe it, but Overy's work is a superb overview for anyone wishing to learn about the war or begin its study.

Detailed, objective
This full of facts book tells the story of Soviet Russia as never told before. With an objective view the writer tries to understand the Soviet leaders' motives for acting the way they did i.e.Winter War against Finland.Also the writer destroys the myth that the Nazis were beaten by irresponsible commanding of Hitler, or by late summer campaigns or hard winter conditions. The Soviet people's selfless sacrifice,developed year by year and eventually destroyed the mighty Nazi war machine.