The War on the Eastern Front (ePub)
The Soviet Union, 1941-1945 - A Photographic History
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
File Size: 72.1 MB (.epub)
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9781526786111
Published: 17th November 2021
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The RIA-Novosti press agency – now known as Sputnik in the West – has one of the best archives of Soviet Second World War photographs and for this remarkable book Alexander Hill has made a superb selection of them. These striking images record vividly, as only photographs can, the brutal conflict on the Eastern Front and the extraordinary experience of the soldiers and civilians who were caught up in it.
Every aspect of the struggle is depicted – the fighting on the front lines and behind the lines, aerial combat and naval warfare, the ordeal of living under German occupation, the war industries and Lend-Lease and the massive sacrifices made at every level of Soviet society to defeat the Germans.
The photographs and captions take the reader through the entire course of the war, from the Nazi-Soviet Pact and Soviet expansion into Poland, Finland and the Baltic Republics, through Operation Barbarossa and the German advances of 1941 and 1942, to the momentous battles at Stalingrad and Kursk and the sequence of massive offensives mounted by the Red Army that drove the Wehrmacht back to Berlin.
The landscapes over which the armies moved, and the shattered towns and cities they left behind, are recorded as are individuals whose faces were captured by the camera during this devastating conflict over seventy years ago.
Alexander Hill’s selection of photographs portrays the course of the war and each image is accompanied with a well informed caption. Provides a fresh perspective on the war, often very close to the Red Army soldier on the ground. Recommended.
WW2 Today
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"...modelers and dioramists will enjoy this new resource and be able to discern uniform and equipment details."
The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society
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A unique and inherently fascinating contribution to the growing library of World War II histories, "The War on the Eastern Front: The Soviet Union, 1941-1945 - A Photographic History" by military historian and academician Alexander Hill is a one-of-a-kind and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library World War II collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.
Midwest Book Review
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This is a fascinating book because it capitalises on RIA-Novosti press agency’s own photographic material, what we assume is the vaults of this agency have been trawelled for the best possible images. Now obviously this is a big and wide subject so the number of photographs had to cover a lot, but the book deals with it very well but I have to say there are quite a lot of very good photography. I suppose coming from a news agency, they obviously have the hard-hitting detail and impact you would expect. The book’s chapters cover Barbarossa to the Battle for Berlin and everything in between. I should also say that although the pictures are the main reason for the book, the book’s text and information is first class. I really good, top book certainly does credit for anyone interested in the Eastern front. Highly recommended.
UK Historian
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Although primarily a photographic record, the author gives you an overview of each section of the battle, and a translation of the original notes accompanying each picture. These improve the images, as you have so much more period background information.
Arrse
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As a Red Army re-enactor, I have found this volume to be of great value and it is exceptional in that it indicates how items were used during the conflict. For my purposes therefore this tome is wonderful, and the images are ideal.
Dr Stuart C Blank, Military Archive Research
About Alexander Hill
Professor Alexander Hill teaches at the University of Calgary, Canada and is a leading expert on the military and political history of Russia and the Soviet Union since 1917. He has written extensively on Soviet military, naval and strategic history during the Second World War, focusing in particular on the partisan movement, naval warfare and Lend-Lease. In addition to publishing many articles on these subjects, he is a former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies and the author of The Red Army and the Second World War.