Days and Nights by Konstantine Simonov

[Roscoe]

Hello All

Thought I'd let you'll know about a great book I just finnished reading that takes place during the siege of Stalingrad.

Days and Nights follows Captain Saburov through roughly 60 days of the seige. I found it to be an excellent story of soldiers during that time. Simonov really creates characters you care about and wrights a faced paced story.There were times I was racing through the text to find out what was going to happen next.

The tone of the book is patriotic but not overly so. It's interesting to read some of the subtle critisism voiced by the characters to official army polocies. Also I the treatment of commisars was nice. I normally think of them a meddling incompantants but Simonov creates sympathetic and caring men.

Finally, there is a lot of discussion of awards and medals. Simonov relates how important these were to the soldiers and officers and it reminds me that there were real men and women who did herioc deeds behind those pretty pieces of shiney enamal and silver that I have on my wall.

The book is available on Amazon.

Roscoe

[desantnik]

Thank you for the recommendation!

[RichieC]

I bought a 1945 copy of this some time ago and have not gotten around to reading it yet.

However, I will go to Florida for a visit to my parents in mid April and bring this and a copy of EASTERN FRONT COMBAT thoughtfully sent to me on loan by our own Doc Riley and read it while I rest.

I'll post my opinion on both upon my return.

BTW, Eric (FG) if you will read this post, I see you are in Naples. My parents are in Bokeelia (Pine Island) and if you PM me, perhaps we can meet up at some point...

[Eryk]

You'll enjoy it. IIRC it's a fictionalized account of the combat at Pavlov's House, a landmark famous to this day in Volgagrad (Stalingrad) where a relatively small group of Soviet soldiers held out against repeated German assaults.

Rather than expecting a factual account of army life or fighting in Stalingrad it's better to read it as a window into the arts during the war. The arts were used as a morale builder, and the heroic novel was part of that. The victory at Stalingrad made heros (justifiably) of the RKKA, and the novel helped show that to the nation.