The History Book Club discussion

The author delves into the memories of the survivors of Stalin's rule.

The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin

by Adam Hochschild

Synopsis:

Although some twenty million people died during Stalin’s reign of terror, only with the advent of glasnost did Russians begin to confront their memories of that time. In 1991, Adam Hochschild spent nearly six months in Russia talking to gulag survivors, retired concentration camp guards, and countless others. The result is a riveting evocation of a country still haunted by the ghost of Stalin.

Stalin's Keys to Victory: The Rebirth of the Red Army in World War II

by Walter S. Dunn Jr. (no photo)

Synopsis:

An important reevaluation of World War II on the Eastern Front Detailed look at how the Soviet Union created more new divisions in a few months than the U.S. did during the entire war More than 60 tables list losses, tank and weapon production, and unit formation, with special emphasis on rifle and tank divisions and brigades When Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the German Army quickly annihilated a major portion of the Red Army. Yet the Red Army rebounded to successfully defend Moscow in late 1941, defeat the Germans at Stalingrad in 1942 and Kursk in 1943, and deliver the deathblow in Belarus in 1944. Dunn examines these 4 battles while explaining how the Soviets lost a third of their prewar army yet returned to beat one of the most highly trained and experienced armies the world has ever seen."

Sounds like an interesting book.

Stalin had no compunction about using women for combat but I was unaware of women as pilots. Looks interesting.

Night Witches: The Amazing Story of Russia's Women Pilots in WWII

by Bruce Myles (no photo)

Synopsis:

n 1941, as Nazi hordes swept east into the Soviet Union, a desperte call went out for women to join the Russian air force. The result—three entire regiments of women pilots and bombers—was a phenomenon unmatched in World II. Through interviews with these courageous pilots, the author uncovers their story.

I have read this and would recommend it.

Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin

by Timothy Snyder

Synopsis:

Americans call the Second World War “The Good War.” But before it even began, America’s wartime ally Josef Stalin had killed millions of his own citizens—and kept killing them during and after the war. Before Hitler was finally defeated, he had murdered six million Jews and nearly as many other Europeans. At war’s end, both the German and the Soviet killing sites fell behind the iron curtain, leaving the history of mass killing in darkness.

Bloodlands is a new kind of European history, presenting the mass murders committed by the Nazi and Stalinist regimes as two aspects of a single history, in the time and place where they occurred: between Germany and Russia, when Hitler and Stalin both held power. Assiduously researched, deeply humane, and utterly definitive, Bloodlands will be required reading for anyone seeking to understand the central tragedy of modern history.

Don't be misled by the title of this book. It provides insight into the Red Army of the USSR and why Hitler would regret taking on his former ally.

Hitler's Arctic War

by Chris Mann (no photo)

Synopsis:

The German army's first campaign in the far north was an outstanding success: between April and June 1940 German forces of less than 20,000 seized Norway, a state of three million people, for minimal losses.

The army learned new skills to fight effectively in snow and ice. As the terrain prohibited the use of tanks and heavy artillery, and lack of airfields restricted the employment of aircraft, the war became an infantry duel, waged across a frozen landscape. The war in the far north was a most effective campaign, and yet, despite the losses inflicted on the Red Army and Allied convoys, the Wahrmacht resources committed there ultimately drained the German war effort. In the end, Hitler's obsession with the prospect of an Allied invasion of Norway was his downfall.

Russia's War by Richard Overy - An essential read for those wanting a frank yet insightful overview of Russia's role in WWII .

Russia's War: A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941-1945 by Richard Overy

I have just finished this fascinating book by Overy, whose well researched and gripping prose combine to create a must read book for anyone seeking an introductory overview on the Eastern Front.

Synopsis:

This book touches on all of the main aspects of the war on Russian soil from the pre war build up, to Barbarossa, and finishing with the fall of the Swastika. It covers key figures such as Stalin, Zhukov and other top military staff. It examines the significant conflicts, including Stalingrad, Leningrad, Moscow, Kursk, with great skill combining factual chronology with wonderful excitement.

Overy works hard to present the Russian success as being the result of its ability to adapt to the modern tactics, equipment and mobilization required in this total war. He goes into depth discussing the part played by Stalin and his generals in the mistakes, the destruction and the victories of the Soviet forces. He also portrays how the Russian people themselves contributed significantly to defeating the Germans through patriotism, determination and ability like no other to withstand unthinkable suffering.

4/5 stars.

Published in January from Harvard:

The War Within: Diaries from the Siege of Leningrad

by Alexis Peri(no photo)

Synopsis:

In September 1941, two and a half months after the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, the German Wehrmacht encircled Leningrad. Cut off from the rest of Russia, the city remained blockaded for 872 days, at a cost of almost a million civilian lives, making it one of the longest and deadliest sieges in modern history.

The War Within chronicles the Leningrad blockade from the perspective of those who endured the unendurable. Drawing on 125 unpublished diaries written by individuals from all walks of Soviet life, Alexis Peri tells the tragic story of how citizens struggled to make sense of a world collapsing around them. Residents recorded in intimate detail the toll taken on minds and bodies by starvation, bombardment, and disease. For many, diary writing became instrumental to survival—a tangible reminder of their humanity. The journals also reveal that Leningraders began to reexamine Soviet life and ideology from new, often critical perspectives.

Leningrad’s party organization encouraged diary writing, hoping the texts would guide future histories of this epic battle. But in a bitter twist, the diarists became victims not only of Hitler but also of Stalin. The city’s isolation from Moscow made it politically suspect. When the blockade was lifted in 1944, Kremlin officials censored publications describing the ordeal and arrested hundreds of Leningrad’s wartime leaders. Many were executed. Diaries—now dangerous to their authors—were concealed in homes, shelved in archives, and forgotten. The War Within recovers these lost narratives, shedding light on one of World War II’s darkest episodes.

Something light but indispensable for a balanced Leningrad shelf:

Leningrad 1941–44: The epic siege

by Robert Forczyk(no photo)

Synopsis:

Osprey's Campaign title for Hitler's protracted siege of Leningrad, which resulted in one of the most brutal campaigns on the Eastern Front during World War II (1939-1945). The German Army Group North was able to isolate the city and its garrison for a period of 900 days, during which an estimated 1.5 million Soviets died from combat, disease and starvation. For over two years, German forces pounded the city with artillery and air assaults while the Soviets made repeated efforts on the frozen swamplands of the Volkhov Front to break through. Finally, in January 1944, the Soviets were able to break Army Group North's front and relieve Leningrad. While most histories of the siege of Leningrad focus on the plight of the starving civil population, this refreshing title instead examines the strength of the garrison's defenses - which ultimately prevented the Germans from capturing the city - and the growing sophistication of Soviet offensive tactics. Dr. Forczyk also provides an assessment of how weather and terrain factors shaped the campaign in this superb addition to the history of the Eastern Front.

***

In a way, it's a Light Version of David M. Glantz' Sovietophile battle studies, written with the flair that makes Forczyk one of Osprey's most recognizable contributors.

"While most histories of the siege of Leningrad focus on the plight of the starving civil population, this refreshing title instead examines the strength of the garrison's defenses -"

Just so. The only light in which the civilian starvation is shown, is its detrimental effect upon manpower in terms of labourers and urban militia. Most of the book is spent on the barricades with the garrison and on the other side of the ring, with the relief armies' unfaltering efforts to create a corridor into the city.

Thank you very much Dimitri

Thanks. The BBC bio of Stalin is surprising in that it glosses over how the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics started WWII as allies with German socialism in a conspiracy to divide up Europe, invading Poland together, and spreading the killing from there. Some would say that Soviet socialism (Stalin) is responsible (at least in part) for German socialism's (Hitler's) enormous body count. 2 Girls 1 Cup

T - please use the proper format so that the goodreads software can pick up your post and add.

by Lin Xun (no photo)

Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator

by Oleg V. Khlevniuk (no photo)

Synopsis:

The most authoritative and engrossing biography of the notorious dictator ever written

Josef Stalin exercised supreme power in the Soviet Union from 1929 until his death in 1953. During that quarter-century, by Oleg Khlevniuk’s estimate, he caused the imprisonment and execution of no fewer than a million Soviet citizens per year. Millions more were victims of famine directly resulting from Stalin's policies. What drove him toward such ruthlessness? This essential biography, by the author most deeply familiar with the vast archives of the Soviet era, offers an unprecedented, fine-grained portrait of Stalin the man and dictator. Without mythologizing Stalin as either benevolent or an evil genius, Khlevniuk resolves numerous controversies about specific events in the dictator’s life while assembling many hundreds of previously unknown letters, memos, reports, and diaries into a comprehensive, compelling narrative of a life that altered the course of world history.

In brief, revealing prologues to each chapter, Khlevniuk takes his reader into Stalin’s favorite dacha, where the innermost circle of Soviet leadership gathered as their vozhd lay dying. Chronological chapters then illuminate major themes: Stalin’s childhood, his involvement in the Revolution and the early Bolshevik government under Lenin, his assumption of undivided power and mandate for industrialization and collectivization, the Terror, World War II, and the postwar period. At the book’s conclusion, the author presents a cogent warning against nostalgia for the Stalinist era.

I have already answered this on the other thread. I will delete it here.

Bentley wrote: "T - please use the proper format so that the goodreads software can pick up your post and add.

by Lin Xun (no photo)"

by Lin Xun (no photo). Thanks for the tip. The book title "2 Girls 1 Cup" (by Lin Xun) references the socialists Hitler & Stalin. It is scary to think that Stalin had no plans to end the partnership he had with his comrade Hitler in their launching of WWII together & invading Poland. Stalin had no plans to attack Hitler. The two monsters might have gone on indefinitely in their conspiracy if Hitler had not attacked Stalin.

Thank you T