Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941-45

This book consists of extracts from key documents, along with commentary and further reading, on the ‘Great Patriotic War’ of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, 1941-45.Despite the historical significance of the war, few Soviet documents have been published in English. This work provides translations of a range of extracts from Soviet documents relating to the titanic struggle on the Eastern Front during World War II, with commentary. This is the only single-volume work in English to use documentary evidence to look at the Soviet war effort from military, political, economic and diplomatic perspectives. The book should not only facilitate a deeper study of the Soviet war effort, but also allow more balanced study of what is widely known in the West as the ‘Eastern Front’.This book will be of much interest to students and scholars of military history, Soviet history, and World War II history.

'The Great Patriotic War and the Soviet Union contains a very considerable amount of commentary on the texts which the author has collected, and this weaves the documents together into coherent chapters that have a clear narrative trajectory—including a very interesting assessment of the validity of Victor Suvorov’s “Icebreaker thesis.” This is highly desirable, as the commentary both provides context for the documents and makes the work far more interesting than would a simple collection of Soviet military order.Hill notes in his introduction that he intended this work chiefly with student use in mind, particularly if paired with When Titans Clashed, by David Glantz and Jonathan House, and/or Evan Mawdlsey’s Thunder in the East.6 Both of these are excellent texts and indeed Hill’s work would nicely complement them in a course reading list. However, Hill’s work also stands very well on its own, and it would have a deserving place in the library of anyone with a personal or professional interest in the Russo-Soviet War.'C. Dale Walton, University of Reading, UK'This work helps to fill a gap in the literature by making Soviet wartime documents available to a wide audience in English translation...Recommended.' A. Drobnicki, York College, CUNY, USA"Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." -- CHOICE, August 2009 Vol. 46 No. 11, 'A succinct and well-illustrated introduction to the operational history of this war. Moreover, particularly noteworthy for specialists are the two excellent chapters on ‘Icebreaker’ and ‘Lend-Lease’.' - European History Quarterly 41(2), 324

Alexander Hill is an Associate Professor in Military History at the University of Calgary, Canada.