Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945A powerful, groundbreaking narrative of the ordinary Russian soldier's experience of the worst war in history, based on newly revealed sources Of the thirty million who fought, eight million died, driven forward in suicidal charges, shattered by German shells and tanks. They were the men and women of the Red Army, a ragtag mass of soldiers who confronted Europe's most lethal fighting force and by 1945 had defeated it. Sixty years have passed since their epic triumph, but the heart and mind of Ivan--as the ordinary Russian soldier was called--remain a mystery. We know something about hoe the soldiers died, but nearly nothing about how they lived, how they saw the world, or why they fought. Drawing on previously closed military and secret police archives, interviews with veterans, and private letters and diaries, Catherine Merridale presents the first comprehensive history of the Red Army rank and file. She follows the soldiers from the shock of the German invasion to their costly triumph in Stalingrad, where life expectancy was often a mere twenty-four hours. Through the soldiers' eyes, we witness their victorious arrival in Berlin, where their rage and suffering exact an awful toll, and accompany them as they return home full of hope, only to be denied the new life they had been fighting to secure. A tour de force of original research and a gripping history, Ivan's War reveals the singular mixture of courage, patriotism, anger, and fear that made it possible for these underfed, badly led troops to defeat the Nazi army. In the process Merridale restores to history the invisible millions who sacrificed the most to win the war. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION True War Stories | 1 |
ONE Marching with Revolutionary Step | 23 |
TWO A Fire through All the World | 49 |
THREE Disaster Beats Its Wings | 82 |
FOUR Black Ways of War | 116 |
FIVE Stone by Stone | 153 |
SIX A Land Laid Waste | 187 |
SEVEN May Brotherhood Be Blessed | 226 |
TEN Sheathe the Old Sword | 336 |
ELEVEN And We Remember All | 372 |
Chronology of Main Events | 389 |
Sources | 393 |
List of Archives | 397 |
Notes | 399 |
433 | |
Acknowledgments | 441 |
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Common terms and phrases
battle began Belorussia Belov Berlin Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv campaign camps captured Chuikov civilians combat command Communist comrades conscripts corpses crime Crimea death defense diers enemy Ermolenko Fascist fear fight fire fought front-line GARF German Gulag guns heroes Ibid Jews July Katyushas Kerch Kharkov Kiev killed kind knew komsomol Kopelev Kursk Leningrad Lev Kopelev lives Maidanek men's military million months morale Moscow Moskvin motherland Nazi never night NKVD officers Overy party patriotic peasants political politruks pravda prisoners Prokhorovka rape recruits Red Army Red Army soldiers Red Army troops Red Army's regiment RGASPI-M RGVA rifle Russian Russkii arkhiv Samoilov Sevastopol SMERSh Smolensk Soviet Partisans Soviet power Soviet troops Soviet Union Stalin's Stalingrad story summer talk tank thing thousands tion told took turned Ukraine Ukrainian Velikaya Otechestvennaya veterans victory villages voiny wartime weeks Wehrmacht Werth winter women wrote young Zhukov