Russia at War: 1941-1945

by Alexander Werth

Release Date: December, 1999

Edition: Paperback

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Russia at War: Pappa Joe As Hero

There are many books on the Russian-German conflict of the Second World War, but Alexander Werth's RUSSIA AT WAR is one of the longest, the most detailed, and the most comprehensive. It is impossible to read it and not get a sense of the masses of men and machines that bashed into each other for nearly four years. His use of detail, map, and breadth of coverage make his book a worthy complement to the bookshelf of war historians. There is, however, a flaw running throughout that nullifies much of the veracity and objectivity that ought to be intrinsic to a serious work of military history. That flaw is his pro-Soviet bias, in particular his refusal to see First Secretary Joseph Stalin as the murderous thug that he was.
Werth divides his history into seven sections. In the first,called 'Prelude to War,' he discusses the months and years that preceded Operation Barbarossa. To him, Hitler is correctly identified as the architect of the war. Werth analyzes what now seems painfully evident in hindsight--the plans for the invasion of Poland. He is less than truthful with Stalin's role in pre-1941 attempts at European hegemony. Werth writes, 'Throughout, Stalin recalls, the Soviet Union had pursued a policy of peace.' (page 40) In that same paragraph, he adds, 'The Soviet Union wanted peace; she wanted peace and business relations with all countries, so long as they did not impinge on her interests.' It is difficult to read this and not gasp in disbelief at Werth's naivete. Russia gobbled up Finland in 1940 even though the Finns did not 'impinge on her interests.' As for Poland, Werth rationalizes the Russian invasion after the Poles were already thoroughly beaten by the Nazis as 'the Soviet government could no longer be neutral in the face of reigning chaos in Poland or the fact that 'our blood-brothers, the Ukrainians and Belorussians are being abandoned to their fate.'' As Werth progresses in his history, he tends to become somewhat more even-handed, and it is in his middle chapters that his true stengths as a writer and historian are evident. He describes the siege of Leningrad and the assault on Moscow by the Wehrmacht in their bloody horror, even if he allows masses of details of lives lost to punctuate his claims.
Some pertinent analyses are missing. Nowhere does he blame Stalin for the great military purges of 1937 as one of the leading factors that ripped the heart out of the Soviet High Command and left Russia very nearly without competent leadership. Nowhere does he describe the fall of Berlin in 1945, for if he had done so, he would have had to explain the mass rape that was perpetrated on all Berlin women by elements of the Red Army. Nowhere does he even hint at the role the NKVD played as Stalin's personal execution squads, a group that undoubtedly killed more fellow Slavs with a bullet to the back of the neck than it did Germans in defense of the Soviet homeland. As I finished reading this massive history, I paused for a moment to read the publicity comments written on the front cover by William L. Shirer, author of RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH, 'The result...is the best book we probably shall ever have in English on Russia at war.' Werth's book is useful in connecting the myriad of dots that was the war on the Eastern Front, but the best book? I don't think so. It is fatally flawed by his unabashed admiration for a thug who feared his own people more than he did his neighbors.

a wonderful introduction to a subject I never studied

This book has given me a new perspective on the second world war. The war between Russia and Germany has not been examined in detail by most U.S. accounts of the war. The case has certainly not been made that nearly the entire outcome of WWII was decided by the clash between the Russian and German armies. In his extermely readable acount of the entire eastern front campaign, Werth provides invaulable first hand accounts of many aspects of the Soviet drive to defeat the Nazi's. Werth was on location in Stalingrad shortly after the surrender of German troops. His account of the famous battle rivals that of any other I have read, including Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad. The only draw back of this great account is that it is written in such a pro-Soviet manner as to almost make the reader believe that Werth is an apologist for the crimes of the Soviets during the entire conflict, especially the invasion of Germany. This book is not for the cold warrior, but a must read for anyone with an interest in the little explored eastern front.