Russia at War, 1941–1945

A History

By: Alexander Werth, Nicolas Werth - foreword

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

In 1941, Russian-born British journalist Alexander Werth observed the unfolding of the Soviet-German conflict with his own eyes. What followed was the widely acclaimed book, Russia at War, first printed in 1964. At once a history of facts, a collection of interviews, and a document of the human condition, Russia at War is a stunning, modern classic that chronicles the savagery and struggles on Russian soil during the most incredible military conflict in modern history.

As a behind-the-scenes eyewitness to the pivotal, shattering events as they occurred, Werth chronicles with vivid detail the hardships of everyday citizens, massive military operations, and the political movements toward diplomacy as the world tried to reckon with what they had created. Despite its sheer historical scope, Werth tells the story of a country at war in startlingly human terms, drawing from his daily interviews and conversations with generals, soldiers, peasants, and other working class civilians. The result is a unique and expansive work with immeasurable breadth and depth, built on lucid and engaging prose, that captures every aspect of a terrible moment in human history.

©1964 Alexander Werth; Foreword copyright 2011 by Nicolas Werth; English translation of foreword copyright 2017 by Skyhorse Publishing (P)2021 Tantor

Mass

You would only say Mass if your from Mass. you from Mass would know this.

One of the better WW2 books following the Eastern Front. if you enjoy this I suggest any book by author Prit Buttar

One of the better WW2 books following the Eastern Front. if you enjoy this I suggest any book by author Prit Buttar.

A Cold War Masterpiece

I think it's important to recall the date of publication for this book and thus its mindset before coming to conclusions about its relevance today. Taken for its time and its publication in the Soviet Union, it's undeniably a great history, throwing open many a locked door for the Soviet public that had lived through the war, fought in it, suffered in it, but probably never had any objective lens with which to see it from an overhead perspective. This must have been a real hard blast of reality when it first appeared. I find there are many sections within it that are fresh and unvarnished ground level views of the war in the east, reading it today.

Is it objective and bias free? You're asking the wrong questions. Those are obsessions of today's political mieliu where every piece of news is examined according to subjective standards of the news consumer. If it doesn't accord with their political viewpoints, they will claim it's biased. No, Werth was born in Leningrad and his parents emigrated to the UK. He came back to the USSR with the British military mission in 1942 sailing with the PQ16 convoy and he remained in the Soviet Union for the course of the war. For a ground level "And I was there" viewpoint, of a semi foreigner who doesn't have to spew the Party line, it's phenomenal. He sees Leningrad after its siege is broken, he's in Stalingrad shortly after the German defeat, even going to the dog and pony show of the German generals in captivity and its short Q and A session. He interviews Chuikov after Stalingrad, so on and so forth, and he strives to cover the totality of the miltiary action of the war across the entire front line of the conflict, a monumental task, without the story being just tanks moving up and artillery barrages.

The diplomatic and political sections, the close ups on particular moments and cities, the occasional view from the Western Allies perspective, it all adds up to Hall of Fame stuff. And in this it sets itself apart also; this really is the war from the Soviet point of view almost all the time, something of a rare animal in Western histories of the War in the East. And for that along it's not to be missed despite its age and constraints.

Is he honest about everything? No, absolutely not. There are points past which he won't go. Katyn he leaves up in the air. Cannibalism in Leningrad, or anywhere else for that matter, does not exist. Execution of Soviet soldiers for cowardice and desertion at Stalingrad? Not a whisper. As for Stalin, he takes a very uneven tone throughout, sometimes in obvious disapproval, sometimes in grudging admiration and sometimes, unmitigated applause, perhaps reminding us Stalin may been a psycho/sociopath, but he was far more complex a person than simply staring at his murder statistics might suggest.

He does wobble at the finale, ascribing Cold War Soviet propaganda to the American use of atomic bombs on Japan, certainly buying into the suspicions of the time and place, but that can be quickly forgotten. If you have any interest in the Eastern Front you should not miss out on this one, despite is gargantuan length. The narrator is up to the task. This is large scale survey history at its best.

A very different view of the Russian Front

This is a unique and eye opening look at the Russian Front of the European Theater in World War 2. Alexander Worth was a naturalized British citizen, but was born in Russia and hence spoke Russian like a native. This gave him the unique ability among western journalists to speak with ordinary Russian citizens as well as members of the Soviet government and his reporting was thus more complete and more accurate than those of western journalists who mostly only spoke with those whose job it was to talk to journalists. This book is thus a very different history of the Russian Front in World War 2.

While the book is perhaps the most interesting of all of the books I have read on the Russian Front of World War 2 it does have some drawbacks. One is that the book itself was written in the 1960s and the author was not privy to information that became public after that time, and so some of the author's assumptions and conclusions are wrong. One example is that we now know that Stalin knew all about the US/British effort to build the Atomic Bomb and thus his reaction to the news when Truman told him was not due to his belief that it was not really anything new. A second is that the author sometimes seems to take the government statements at their face value rather than questioning them, although in general he is skeptical of many of the Soviet government's public statements. More such examples exist in the book. Still, as a look at what the average Russian citizen believed and what the Soviet government said, this book is unrivaled in all of the books about the Russian war against Nazi Germany that I have read. It should not be missed by anyone interested in the Eastern Front in World War 2.

The narration by Derek Perkins is absolutely spot on and made the book a pleasure to listen to.

Phenomenal book by an ideal witness

I have been looking for a good history on the Eastern Front for a while. This is it. Loved it. Filled in an immense gap in my understanding of WWII. Wonderful book.