From Leningrad to Hungary: Notes of a Red Army Soldier, 1941-1946 (Soviet

by E. Moniushko, David M. Glantz (Editor)

This new book is a chronological narrative of the experiences of Evgenii Moniushko, who lived through and survived the first year of the siege of Leningrad and who served as a junior officer in the Red Army during the last eighteen months of war and the first year of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia and Hungary. This volume presents an intensely human view of daily army life both in combat and garrison duty and unique perspectives on the conditions he and other junior officers and common soldiers endured while in army service.

Genres: History, Soviet Union, World War II

232 pages, Hardcover

First published December 16, 2004

Reviews

[David Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evgenii Moniushko tells the story of his life from the beginning of the Siege of Leningrad through garrison duty in Hungary, ending in 1946. The story is more or less equally divided between the siege, his time in artillery officer training, recovery from a leg wound, combat in Silesia, and garrison duty. This was written decades after the fact, and he's not shy about saying that he's forgotten much of what happened. Still, it is an interesting and entertaining tale.

Included is a wealth of pencil drawings made by the author, along with some very nice hand-drawn maps. I'm not an artist, so I'd call these drawings "very good", but those more knowledgeable of art may have a more critical opinion. There are a few black-and-white photos as well.

He was a junior Lieutenant from the time he finished officer training until the end of the story, which seems to me a long time without a promotion. The combat described here occurred in the last few months of the war, when the Soviets were crushing the Nazis, so there is a feeling of the inevitability of victory.

I quite enjoyed this one.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Leningrad to Hungary: Notes of a Red Army Soldier, 1941-1946 serves as a warning shot: Evgenii D. Moniushko demonstrates how easily free societies sleepwalk into authoritarian traps under the promise of convenience.