false <![CDATA[Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939 - 1945]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171055909m/84571.jpg 84571 8 <div><div>They died in vast numbers, eight million men and women driven forward in suicidal charges, shattered by German shells and tanks. They were the soldiers of the Red Army, an exhausted mass of recruits who confronted Europe's most lethal fighting force and by 1945 had defeated it. For sixty years, their experiences were suppressed, replaced by patriotic propaganda. We know how the soldiers died, but nearly nothing about how they lived, how they saw the world, or why they fought. In this ambitious, revelatory history, Catherine Merridale uncovers the harrowing story of who these soldiers were, and how they lived and died during the war.</div></div> 81633 2005 Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939--1945 total:102|5:21|4:55|3:21|2:5|1:0| 102 398 165 24 0 1 false false Tue Jul 15 15:13:09 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 15 15:13:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Apr 02 12:58:40 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 02 13:02:51 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:45:42 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:45:42 -0800 2009 Doing research in the Soviet archives seems like a trying task, but critics revere the work Catherine Merridale did to prepare Ivan's War. The professor from Queen Mary, University of London, conducted over 200 interviews with Soviet veterans and visited major battle sites, but the most enlightening...

more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Mar 21 12:55:20 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 23 19:06:20 -0700 2008 A Russian grunts view of the Second World War. With all the hoopla
around Ken Burns series and "The Greatest Generation", reading this book will be a salutary corrective to the notion that the US military defeated Hitler.

At the cost of staggering losses of life, the ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Oct 17 11:59:49 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 17 11:59:49 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Mon Jul 27 05:58:10 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 07:40:57 -0700 2009
Its somet...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 28 09:29:39 -0700 2007 Thu Nov 06 08:54:07 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Mar 02 08:08:09 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 08:35:20 -0800 2009
It is hard to appreciate the sheer volume of devastation and the depth of bureaucratic incompetence ---but Merridale does a good job of putting a human face on the numbers and creating a vivid portrait of the war from their side of the...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Feb 16 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Oct 20 09:37:46 -0700 2007 Sat Feb 16 11:59:48 -0800 2008 Ivan's War avoids detailed descriptions of battles, instead focusing on the experiences and sentiments of Soviet soldiers during a time of great upheava...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Dec 21 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 17 10:46:25 -0800 2008 Tue Apr 21 12:35:03 -0700 2009
Since I finished it several months ago, I don't remember many details, but I do remember being impressed with the slant that the author took; a lot of info about the mental state of the average Soviet soldier and how that me...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 07 19:54:48 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 07 19:54:48 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jun 19 13:44:56 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 20 13:19:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 00:01:18 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 00:01:56 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 24 19:48:03 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 24 19:49:52 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jan 03 20:41:23 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 03 20:45:03 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 19 17:56:11 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 17:57:34 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Sep 24 03:13:38 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 24 03:15:29 -0700 2008 Why? It's good therapy when I feel down. I feel lucky compared to those poor guys.
But seriously, Americans have been lucky. We need to know we didn't WWII all by ourselves.
Very good account of Russian soldiers' life and what they had to pu...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Aug 19 18:56:15 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 19 18:58:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 08 10:34:43 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 08 11:03:37 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 23 16:42:36 -0800 2007 Tue Jan 29 13:17:01 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=84571