Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War

Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War
by Chris Bellamy

Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War
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Book Summary Information

Author: Chris Bellamy
Edition: Hardcover
Published: 2007-10-30
ISBN: 0375410864
Number of pages: 848
Publisher: Knopf

Book Reviews of Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War

Book Review: Save your money
Summary: 2 Stars

I was reluctant to critique Bellamy's Absolute War, because I know it is hard to write. But then I thought that readers wanting to learn about the Eastern Front might buy this book by mistake. If you need every new book about the Eastern Front, you will find some interesting things here. If you want a solid overview, save your money.

There is some interesting research and analysis in Absolute War pertaining to such issues as the hunt for the anti-Soviet leaflet writer "Rebel" in Leningrad during the siege, the critical role of Lend-Lease in keeping the Soviet Union afloat, and the potential use of weapons of mass destruction on the Eastern Front.

However, this book is NOT a comprehensive history of the war of 1941-45. All events after Kursk (1943) receive only cursory treatment at best. There are several detailed maps causing one to expect close descriptions of such battles as the clearing of the Dnepr (1943), Bagration (1944), or Budapest (1945), but the reader will search in vain. Why are these maps here? I suspect it was to trick buyers in the bookshop.

Moreover, as another reviewer noted, Bellamy is clearly out of his league with regard to the scholarship. It is strange that he would write without any apparent awareness of the mandatory military histories of Robert Citino (see, e.g., Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm (2004)). And it is dumbfounding that he tries to tell the Soviet perspective, yet is ignorant of the work of Sheila Fitzpatrick (see, e.g., Everyday Stalinism (1999)).

Finally, the book was minimally edited and proofread. Eastern Front afficionados will be quite surprised to learn that after "meeting in the Minsk area on 28 June, and completing the destruction of encircled German forces, Hoth's Third and Guderian's Second Panzer Groups were to move towards the Denpr." (p. 192) Those possessing a moral compass will puzzle over such statements as "if anyone deserved a break, it was Stalin." (p. 227) And gentle readers in search of a proper sentence will long ponder "The modern international system, with its five permanent members of the UN Security Council and, to a very large extent still, the world we live in now." (p. 687 -- the last sentence of the book's penultimate paragraph!)

Summary of Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War

The battle on the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1945 was arguably the single most decisive factor of World War II, fixing the course of world history over the next half century. Now, drawing on sources newly available since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany, historian and journalist Chris Bellamy presents the first full account of this deadly conflict.

Bellamy outlines the lead-up to the war—in which the fragile alliance between Hitler and Stalin was unceremoniously broken—and takes us headlong into the hostilities. He presents a shocking picture of battle in which the traditional restraints of “civilized” warfare were shed. He makes clear how the Soviets quickly rallied against Hitler, choosing homegrown despotism over foreign domination in a struggle that the Russian people call the Great Patriotic War.

Bellamy charts the early gains of the German army, whose advances into Soviet territory were brought to a halt in Moscow in the winter of 1941, and whose defeat was sealed in the Battle of Stalingrad, the most merciless campaign of the bloodiest front. He shows how Soviet men—and women—joined to fight a war whose casualties were later steeply underestimated by their government, and how even the true death toll, at 27 million, does not take into account the millions of lives on both sides that lay shattered in the aftermath.

Finally, Bellamy examines the far-reaching consequences of the battle’s outcome—the reverberations of which are still felt today—and argues that the cost of victory was ultimately too much for the Soviet Union to bear.

A magisterial study, and an essential addition to our understanding of contemporary world history.

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