Russia's War

In the course of human history there has probably been no more terrible place than Eastern Europe in 1941-45. The annihilatory war between Fascism and Communism and the dreadful fate of those cursed to live on this vast battlefield are the subjects of Russia's War.

Richard Overy has set out to recreate the whole course of the Great Patriotic War both from the point of view of the troops and of the ordinary people. From the Hitler-Stalin pact through the unleashing of Operation Barbarossa, to the great series of Soviet victories which led ultimately to the capture of Berlin, Overy brilliantly recreates this apocalyptic struggle. Drawing on the most recent research, illustrated with unique Russian cine stills, Russia's War proves conclusively that, however significant the Anglo-American role in defeating Hitler's armies, this was fundamentally brought about by events on the Eastern Front. The Nazis' war of extermination wound up both by destroying its initiators and by imbedding a Soviet presence in Central Europe for half a century.

Richard Overy is Britain's leading historian of the Second World War and Russia's War will make its many readers understand more clearly than ever before the great achievements and the terrible price of the Soviet victory over Hitler. Estimates of total Soviet military and civilian deaths in the period now stand at the inconceivable figure of more than 25 million. It is a measure of the lip-service usually paid to this that Russia's War is the first full-length account in English of the Soviet side of the conflict on both the battlefield and the home front.