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  • Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, 1941–1945
  • Walter Dunn
Stalin, the Russians, and Their War, 1941–1945. By Marius Broekmeyer. Translated by Rosalind Buck. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004. ISBN 0-299-19594-2. Sources. Index. Pp. xvi, 315. $22.95.

The author has surveyed more than a thousand first-hand accounts by nearly five hundred persons to describe the impact of World War II on the Soviet people. He has organized these accounts with very little interpretation, giving the book a feeling of authenticity that is sometimes lacking in books dealing with the Soviet Union. Reference to the hardships suffered by the people and dissident groups was censored until 1990 and many of the sources on which this book is based became available only after that date.

The war was a catastrophe for the army and the people of the U.S.S.R. The total loss of life exceeded 28 million persons according to numerous studies. The official military losses were eight million, but the true total was likely more than ten million with the remainder civilian losses. During the war the people worked long hours in the factories with very little food. Everything was in short supply as the Germans held the most productive areas of the country and the shortages continued after the end of the war. To add to their burden, the people were subjected to ruthless control by the government with harsh penalties for minor infractions. The Soviet Union had passed through twenty years of turmoil that left many of its citizens disenchanted with Communist rule. In many parts of the Soviet Union the German invaders were greeted as liberators but a sufficient number of the population remained loyal to their country to overcome all of the obstacles and defeat the Germans.

The army suffered most of all. In 1937 and 1938 Stalin purged the Red Army of nearly 50,000 officers either by sending them to prison camps or executing them. This action, based in part on documents forged by the Germans, left the Red Army practically stripped of experienced leaders. The lack of leadership more than shortages of men or weapons led to the collapse of the Red Army in the face of an attack by the world's most efficient army. More than six million soldiers were killed, captured, or missing in the first twelve months of the war.

In desperation Stalin imposed brutal methods to salvage the situation. Commissars were given equal status to unit commanders, who often feared the regime more than the Germans. Men were sent into combat with little training and sometimes without weapons. The Germans were unable to take Moscow and retreated in the face of continual attacks by the newly raised divisions, but the Germans remained in control of sixty million Soviet people, many of whom cooperated with the occupiers. More than a million Soviet men joined the German army, serving either as service troops or in combat formations. Many others worked in German factories or on the farms in Germany.

In the face of the war crisis and the problem of people reluctant to support the Communist regime, Stalin called on the Soviet citizens to defend the fatherland. Many responded but others still opposed the regime. The production [End Page 1249] lines provided weapons and millions of young men were added to the army. Some of the new soldiers were freed from prison camps. By mid 1942 the tide began to turn and at Stalingrad the Germans suffered a major defeat at the hands of new divisions formed in the winter of 1941, under the command of officers who had learned their skills at the front. As the Red Army began to reclaim territory in 1943 they scooped up any men of military age and placed them in the army, often without uniforms or weapons. The Communist officials punished anyone who had cooperated with the Germans.

Although this is an unpleasant book to read, the author has provided a valuable service in countering the sugar-coated Communist version of the war. It should be required reading for all interested in the Eastern Front in World War II.

Walter Dunn
Elkhorn...

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