01-15-2003, 09:33 AM
I would love a copy of "War and Fates".
One of the greatest tragedies regarding the GPW is that the USSR completely ignored the "redarmyman" after the war. There were propaganda works, unit histories, memoirs of high ranking officers and officials and even many valuable military studies of the war but nothing, nothing on the Soviet soldier.
An examination I did for my MA of Michael Parrish's early 1990s 2 volume bibilography of soviet works on the GPW (he lists over 10,000!!!) found NOT ONE dedicated to the Soviet enlisted man!!!
Only recently has this sort of work started to come out and recently is, sadly, too late. Too any brave redarmymen have died. We can only get a drop in the ocean of their experiences today whereas their German opponents and Western allies were able to write for the last 50 years or so!
So hurra for the veterans of Chicago area for putting out this book.
While I am on a rant. In my opinion nothing the so-called Suvurov (it is a pen name) has written is worth its weight in paper. I will admit I have not read those two books quoted yet. I gave up on him in the 1980s.
He was a captain in Soviet military reconnaisance - not in the GRU till his final few years where he was a cipher clerk in Vienna. He then defected and wrote books for his income. He tried to tackle things he knew nothing of - the grand strategy of the USSR, WWII history, etc. and to claim he was an authority.
His works are not taken seriously at all amongst professional historians of the USSR or Soviet military. I have met a few of his de-briefers who share a similarly low opinion of his works.
If you want English language works on the Soviet military in WWII the authorities are David Glantz, John Erickson (who sadly died about a year ago), Richard Reese, Walter Dunn, Mark van Hagen and Charles Sharpe. They have different specialities although Glantz and Erickson are excellent "generalists".
Glantz is likely the most knowledgeable person about the GPW alive. Certainly the most knowldegeable non-Russian. He studied the USSR military full-time for over 20 years, set up the US military's famous Soviet Army Studies Office at Ft. Leavenworth continues to work full time on GPW history and has extremely high level contacts in Russia - he lectures at the General Staff Academy and has the run of the library and archives.
End Rant
Shawn
One of the greatest tragedies regarding the GPW is that the USSR completely ignored the "redarmyman" after the war. There were propaganda works, unit histories, memoirs of high ranking officers and officials and even many valuable military studies of the war but nothing, nothing on the Soviet soldier.
An examination I did for my MA of Michael Parrish's early 1990s 2 volume bibilography of soviet works on the GPW (he lists over 10,000!!!) found NOT ONE dedicated to the Soviet enlisted man!!!
Only recently has this sort of work started to come out and recently is, sadly, too late. Too any brave redarmymen have died. We can only get a drop in the ocean of their experiences today whereas their German opponents and Western allies were able to write for the last 50 years or so!
So hurra for the veterans of Chicago area for putting out this book.
While I am on a rant. In my opinion nothing the so-called Suvurov (it is a pen name) has written is worth its weight in paper. I will admit I have not read those two books quoted yet. I gave up on him in the 1980s.
He was a captain in Soviet military reconnaisance - not in the GRU till his final few years where he was a cipher clerk in Vienna. He then defected and wrote books for his income. He tried to tackle things he knew nothing of - the grand strategy of the USSR, WWII history, etc. and to claim he was an authority.
His works are not taken seriously at all amongst professional historians of the USSR or Soviet military. I have met a few of his de-briefers who share a similarly low opinion of his works.
If you want English language works on the Soviet military in WWII the authorities are David Glantz, John Erickson (who sadly died about a year ago), Richard Reese, Walter Dunn, Mark van Hagen and Charles Sharpe. They have different specialities although Glantz and Erickson are excellent "generalists".
Glantz is likely the most knowledgeable person about the GPW alive. Certainly the most knowldegeable non-Russian. He studied the USSR military full-time for over 20 years, set up the US military's famous Soviet Army Studies Office at Ft. Leavenworth continues to work full time on GPW history and has extremely high level contacts in Russia - he lectures at the General Staff Academy and has the run of the library and archives.
End Rant
Shawn
