Review: Ivan's War

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sniper1shot
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Review: Ivan's War

#1

Post by sniper1shot » 28 Aug 2006, 23:42

Title: Ivan's War (The Red Army 1939-45)
Author: Catherine Merridale
ISBN: 0-571-21808-3
Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd
Stars: 3.5
(out of 5)

I had this book as a "maybe to buy" and when the local bookstore had it at 50% off, I bought it.
This book started off fairly dry with a lot of info on how the book was written and where the info came from. It only got a bit better after that.
The chapters cover the beginning of the war, where there was incompetence, misinformation and horrendous losses. The middle of the book covers the recruitment of new soldiers, training and the battles that halted the German advances and ultimately turned the war in Russias favour....Stalingrad and Kursk. The mention of the Crimean and Leningrad are also there. The last chapters cover the advances through Romania, Hungary and onto German soil.
What this book mainly states is that the Russian soldier felt they were doing their duty for MOTHER RUSSIA. This incl. the Gulag prisoners that were "freed" to fight and peasants and partisans that were swept up into the front line units to replace the losses. Everything was for Russia.
This book is not a book of individual stories but one long drawn out history of the Russian soldier. Some of the chapters seemed to of not flowed properly and I found myself re-reading them to get the jist of what was trying to be said. I never really got the feel that this book represented the soldiers well.
The veterans do mention some of the atrocities (rapes) but tend to brush them off and go on to talk about their comrades etc. There are VERY FEW actual battle descriptions and those that are mentioned are usually one or two sentences. There are few pictures in the book, some that I have not seen before
There are better books out there on the Russian Army.
The few items that I did like on the book was the mention of how the Soviet Gov't has treated their veterans, and the explanation of how some of the major losses happened with incompetent leaders at all levels.

Recommended only if you have nothing else to read.

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B Hellqvist
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#2

Post by B Hellqvist » 29 Aug 2006, 00:39

I've read it too, and I liked it better than you. Some of the info from the latter part of the war was similar to stuff found in Hastings' "Armageddon" (it seems like some cross-pollination took place). The lack of detailed combat stories didn't bother me. The perspective (enlisted men, NCO's and junior officers) was good, as they tend to be forgotten in other works. There might be better books out there, but "Ivan's War" felt like a good starting point.


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Kunikov
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#3

Post by Kunikov » 04 Sep 2006, 02:35

I gave it 4 stars on amazon, it was somewhat lacking, but overall a somewhat interesting account. Although I think she over analyzed the bad and ignored much of the 'good' in the red army.

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Baltasar
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#4

Post by Baltasar » 15 Apr 2007, 11:08

Just read the german translation. Interesting enough, but not really something I hoped for. I guess it's still hard to get regimental / divisional unit diaries, but the book is reads more like a novel, not like a real description of the events.

Still worth a look, but too emotional and far too few accoutns of actual combat, organisation etc for my taste.

pitman
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#5

Post by pitman » 15 Apr 2007, 18:46

I thought it was quite good. It is not a battle account, but a sociological depiction of the Soviet soldier in the war in the vein of Bell Wiley's Johnny Reb and Billy Yank. It's an attempt to show what life in wartime was like for Soviet soldiers. I thought she made very good use of sources. I wrote a lengthy review of it on Amazon.com but some computer glitch caused it to go into the ether and I didn't have the heart to compose it all over again.

I recommend it. It is especially useful when read in conjunction with some of the bevy of Soviet soldier memoirs that have been coming out the past few years.

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