Stalingrad

The July 1942 to February 1943 events in and around Stalingrad may have decided the outcome of the Second World War. Accounts from the perspective of German combatants are many and varied (as shown by my April book review). Not so much so from the Soviet side. If this book were merely after-the-battle memoirs it would be valuable. However, the nature of the accounts discovered by author Jochen Hellbeck are extroardinary, and this book is more than worth your time if you have any interest in at all in perhaps one of the most dramatic and important battles to have occured in recent history.

The key to this book is in, of course, the accounts that form its core. During the battle a team of historians from Moscow arrived to interview what ended up being dozens of Red Army commanders and soldiers, party officials and workers. Those interviews were recorded and promptly buried deep in the archives. The nature of the accounts were simply too raw and real for the Soviet authorities to release. They quite possibly would have languished in obscurity had not Jochen Hellbeck discovered them, and realized the enormity of what he had found. These interviews help answer all sorts of questions regarding the incredible staying power of the individuals who sacrificed so much in fighting off the German assault on Stalingrad. In short, it is nearly impossible to understand how and why events at Stalingrad ended as they did without including this book as a key component in any honest research effort.

For the general reader do note that this book is also well organized and written. Some of the accounts are absolutely heart breaking, others shocking, some incredibly incriminating (so much so their admissions would be later, and unconvincingly walked back), and others even downright gossipy. But they are all authentic; full of the emotion and thoughts one would have in the moment of participating in such an immense and horrifying struggle while commenting free of worry from the censors. In addition, the interviews published here very much complement each other. Together, they paint a picture as to the motivations and efforts of those tasked with defending perhaps the one city in the Soviet Union that absolutely could not fall if the Red Army was to drive German troops from Eastern Europe.