Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941-45

Alexander Hill is an Associate Professor in Military History at the University of Calgary, Canada.

'The Great Patriotic War and the Soviet Union contains a very considerable amount of commentary on the texts which the author has collected, and this weaves the documents together into coherent chapters that have a clear narrative trajectory—including a very interesting assessment of the validity of Victor Suvorov’s “Icebreaker thesis.” This is highly desirable, as the commentary both provides context for the documents and makes the work far more interesting than would a simple collection of Soviet military order.Hill notes in his introduction that he intended this work chiefly with student use in mind, particularly if paired with When Titans Clashed, by David Glantz and Jonathan House, and/or Evan Mawdlsey’s Thunder in the East.6 Both of these are excellent texts and indeed Hill’s work would nicely complement them in a course reading list. However, Hill’s work also stands very well on its own, and it would have a deserving place in the library of anyone with a personal or professional interest in the Russo-Soviet War.'C. Dale Walton, University of Reading, UK'This work helps to fill a gap in the literature by making Soviet wartime documents available to a wide audience in English translation...Recommended.' A. Drobnicki, York College, CUNY, USA"Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." -- CHOICE, August 2009 Vol. 46 No. 11

• Acknowledgements  Glossary  Introduction  1 Lenin, Stalin and the West 1917-1939  2 The Icebreaker controversy and Soviet Intentions in 1941  3 Barbarossa  4 The Battle of Moscow  5 The Tide Turns – The Battle for Stalingrad  6 The Battle of Kursk and the Race for the Dnepr  7 The Siege of Leningrad  8 Lend-Lease Aid, the Soviet Economy and the Soviet Union at War  9 The Soviet Partisan Movement  10 The "Ten ‘Stalinist’ Crushing Blows" of 1944  11 From the Vistula to Berlin – the end of the Reich  12 The Soviet Invasion of Manchuria  Conclusion  Chronology of Key Events