6 volume History GPW

[new world]

6 volume set History of Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945.

Huge volume - 600-700 pages each.

Published in Moscow in early 60's.

[Dave]

I bought this set... It's AWESOME! If you ever find another set, it's highly recommended!!!

--Dave

[charlet]

how many if I'm not undiscrete? (just have a reference)

tx, seb

[new world]

Dave,

What exactly do you like so much about this set?

As far as historical truth goes - the reality in these books was highly modified to reflect the political trends of the moment.

As the result - many fact were misrepresented or left out of the books.

But the books do look impressive as far as the quality goes.

BTW, another version of multi-volume history of OPW was published in the 1980's, which looks even nicer than this one.

Best,
William

[Dave]

Seb- I got it for $225. Hefty price, but since I have $1000's tied up in books, what the hey?!!!

William- You are correct that there is probably a lot of the info in the books that is incorrect. However, given that I can't read Russian all too quickly (and need a dictionary when I do!) the articles are of not too much use to me except on a case-by-case basis. I have a nice 'condensed' encyclopedia that came out in the 1980's which has a lot of small articles in it on HSU's, operations, etc... This set has much larger articles on fewer topics (i.e. the "Belarus Offensive" -Operation Bagratian- took up less than a 1/4 page in the newer book, but goes on for multiple pages in the larger set.)

The BEST part about the books though is the maps. To me, the maps alone are worth my investment. There are probably 20-30 fold out maps in each of the books, plus an additional "Map Supplement" which has a further 20 maps. I have relied heavily on the maps in my condensed encyclopedia while writing the biographies on my website, now I have about 10 times the maps, many in exceptional detail (down to the individual streets in Budapest, the mined areas in Leningrad harbour, etc. etc...) Like I said above, the maps alone made my investment worthwhile. Plus, there are dozens of photos in the books that I've seen no where else (page after page of photos from the June 45 Victory Day parade, for example.) A lot of the fine details may be wrong in the text, but since I don't plan on making that much use of the text, these work well for me!

--Dave

[otlichnik]

Dave,

I agree that this is a great set. I sadly don't own it.

New world is very right about the inherent hazards of this, and all Soviet era reference works. However, it is still a good and important work. Glantz, and other authors in the Journal of Soviet Military Studies, have written a great deal about the merits and problems with Soviet era sources and how to use them. It is possible to do many good essays/studies on it and hopefully someone someday will do a full PhD on it.

Dave is right that the first, 1960s edition is much better than the later one. The first was written in the de-Stalinization era and in what was to be the era of greatest openess until Gorbachov's Glasnost got rolling in the late mid-1980s. The second edition was done in the worst days of Brezhnevite stagnation when many things we re-written to glorify and protect him and his cronies.

There are many entries in IVOV, as the set is known, which provides information not found anywhere else. For the real Soviet military history geek Glantz always compares the entries in the two editions of IVOV and other Soviet references) when he writes about the "forgotten" battles of WWII. In some cases the second edition is better, but that is rare. Sometimes IVOV is very close to the "truth" and other times it is way, way off. The most famous example being the near total neglect of the huge Operation Mars.

Shawn

[new world]

Guys,

Sure it's great source for the maps. As native Russian speaker I tend to focus on the written content over the graphics.

My opinion is also highly influenced by the input of my grandfather and other veterans, who had a chance to review the 2nd edition and were very sceptical of the Brezhnev-era interpretation of the history.

Best regards,
William

[Dave]

There is also another edition out there, I think it's a 12-volume set. I believe it may be the first edition, though I'm not certain (William, Shawn, you guys may know.)

I guess reference books boil down to what you need them for. I will admit (this may be a revalation to some!) that I've never once read a book on eastern-front battles from cover to cover. Why? I tend to fall asleep part way through! Unless I have something that I am particularly looking for, I tend to lose interest quite quickly.

With that said, I have nearly every book that COL Glantz has written, especially all of the map books. :) I have also dozens of books written by other authors (the "Army Group Center", "Army Group North" and "Army Group South" written by Werner Haupt I use quite frequently) including just about every order of battle that I've ever had a chance to pick up (both German and Soviet.)

But you see, my intent with the books is to illuminate the lives of the Soviet soldiers whose biographies end up on my website. An average bio takes me about a full day (roughly 12 hours) to research and write, and entails me tracking his unit (and enemy units) through each step of their retreat/advance.

That's why to me, the maps are so important. They allow me to to take a quick view at where a unit was at a relatively exact time. From there, I can pull into other books to read up on any battle(s) or operation(s) in that area, and then pull out the German histories and read up on their units that were in that area, and what their opinions were of the Soviet units.

Anyway, just thought I'd give a little explaination about what qualifies as a 'good' reference book for me! :)

--Dave