
Ivan's War
Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
A powerful, groundbreaking narrative of the ordinary Russian soldier's experience of the worst war in history, based on newly revealed sources.
Of the 30 million who fought in the eastern front of World War II, 8 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.
A tour de force of original research and a gripping history, Ivan's War reveals the singular mixture of courage, patriotism, anger, and fear that made it possible for these underfed, badly led troops to defeat the Nazi army. In the process, Merridale restores to history the invisible millions who sacrificed the most to win the war.
©2006 Catherine Merridale (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...




















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I’m a Russophile - from the Romanovs to WW2. Books like Ivan’s War make me admire them even more.
Fascinating perspective on WW2
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Excellent narration, interesting perspective on WWII
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Remarkable Overview of Soviet War Experience
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A story we have not heard.
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What this book provided was a much higher view of the Soviet side of the Eastern Front. Instead of the daily life of the soldier and how he fought against the German forces I found details of the clothing they wore, how their uniform changed as rank became more important, how the Army evacuated civilians during the first part of the war and how they helped harvest crops in the second part of the war, how the civilians lived, how the Soviet soldier changed during the war and how difficult reunions were after the war, corruption, demobilization and other high view topics. That is not to say that the book is uninteresting. It is, in fact, very interesting and I learned quite a bit, but not what I thought I would learn from buying the book.
One thing that did surprise me is that the book spends considerable time explaining why some of the terrible things that happened during the war occurred. Stalin's order "Not One Step Back" (Order 277) that ended up insuring the captivity of more than a million Soviet soldiers rather than their retreat to safer locations is justified due to the existing conditions of the fighting. The author explains the causes of the looting and the epidemic of rape that occurred when the Soviet soldiers reached Germany, and almost seems to understand it. It is not that the author thinks well of the old Soviet reign of terror as the book is clear that the Soviet government was a brutal dictatorship resulting in the unjust conviction, imprisonment and/or death of many innocent soldiers and civilians and gives many examples of normal soldiers, sometimes heroes, who ended up being unable to prove that they were innocent and ended up either dead or in the Gulag. It is a frightening picture of what life was like in Stalin's USSR.
Mr Perkins' narration is first class and adds to the content of the book immeasurably.
Bird's eye view of the Eastern Front in WW2.
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A welcome addition
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Fantastic and fascinating.
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Respect
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Deeply insightful, revealing, and utterly human
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I knew quite a bit about the USSR's role in WW2 but at the Stalin, Molotov and Zhukov level. After listening to this book it helped me to understand why it was that the Soviet Union was able to beat the Nazi's. It also adds to my belief that as much as I might wish it not so the USSR won the European war. Could the US and it's allies have beaten Germany with out the Soviets? Absolutely, but it would have cost the Allies an additional 1 million deaths or more. The Red army saved all those American lives. Something we forget. Really amazing considering the conditions and poor leadership the individual Red soldier had to endure, especially at the start.
Unknown truth with details
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