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Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945
Current price:
$25.20
Publication Date: January 23rd, 2007
Publisher:
Picador
ISBN:
9780312426521
Pages:
480
Description
Unmasking the Untold Story of World War II
Of the thirty million who fought in the eastern front of World War II, eight million died, driven forward in suicidal charges, shattered by German shells and tanks. They were the men and women of the Red Army, a ragtag mass of soldiers who confronted Europe's most lethal fighting force and by 1945 had defeated it.
Sixty years have passed since their epic triumph, but the heart and mind of Ivan–as the ordinary Russian soldier was called–remain a mystery. We know something about how the soldiers died, but nearly nothing about how they lived, how they saw the world, or why they fought.
Sourced from previously inaccessible military archives, personal diaries, and intimate veterans' narratives, author Catherine Merridale unveils the untold journey of these soldiers from their first encounter with the German offensive to their hard-earned victory in Stalingrad–a place where survival was measured in mere hours.
Accompany these brave hearts into the morose streets of Berlin, as they face their anger, fear, and finally, a bitter homecoming, denied of the new life for which they sacrificed everything. Discover this unique fusion of patriotism, courage, and human spirit that drove these undernourished, poorly led troops to overthrow the Nazi menace.
Ivan's War emphatically places these invisible millions at the core of their deserved historical context, accounting for their major role in shaping a new era.
Praise for Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945
"Catherine Merridale has picked the locks that kept this history hidden. . . . Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the history of the time.” —The Economist
“[A] breathtaking, sweeping, yet well-balanced and finely tuned study.” —The Times Literary Supplement (London)
“With extraordinary patience and a wonderful ear for nuance . . . [Merridale] produces what may be the best historical portrait of life in the Red Army yet published.” —The New York Review of Books
“Combines, quite effectively, painstaking historical reconstruction and sympathetic projection.” —The New York Times
“[A] profoundly empathic work of history.” —Newsday
“An impressive work of history, managing to give a sense of the amazing hardships of the frontoviki's experience.” —The New York Sun
“Succeeds admirably in fashioning a compelling portrait, helped immensely by her talent as a writer.” —Foreign Affairs
“[Merridale] does a marvelous job. Ivan's War is full of the type of information that will make you find someone to tell.” —Richmond Times Dispatch
“This book is the raw and bleeding version . . . a tightly edited, well-paced and very readable account.” —The Seattle Times"
"Unprecedented in its approach, Catherine Merridale's research into the lives of Red Army soldiers combined with her perception makes this a most fascinating and important work.” —Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad
“Catherine Merridale has done something very unusual. The Soviet war effort has been described many times but her new book tells the searing story from the bottom up. Her account of the sufferings of the Red Army soldiers and their families is unlikely to be bettered.” —Robert Service, author of Stalin: A Biography
“Merridale's new book is excellent. This unique, strikingly original account of the Red Army in World War II is a first-rate social history as well as an important military study, and a stellar example of the combination of oral history with standard archival research. It makes the soldiers of the Red Army come alive.” —Stanley Payne, Hilldale-Jaume Vicens Vives Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“Ivan's War is a marvelous book. All of Catherine Merridale's virtues are on display: remarkable research (based in this case on literally hundreds of interviews with survivors and witnesses); a clear, unpretentious style that belies the complexity of her material; comfortable historical command of a dauntingly large theme; and a rare compassion and empathy for her subjects. Ivan's War confirms what anyone who read Night of Stone already knew: that Catherine Merridale is a superb historian, among the very best of her generation.” —Tony Judt, author of Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
“This is an inventively researched and evocatively written study of the Soviet soldier on the blood-ridden Eastern Front. Using freshly available archival materials, as well as sparkling interviews with a vanishing generation of veterans, Merridale has provided an empathetic and realistic portrait of the men and women who, more than any other combat soldiers, brought down the Third Reich.” —Norman M. Naimark , author of The Russians in Germany and Fires of Hatred
