Download or read book The Value of Human Life in Soviet Warfare written by Amnon Sella and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-19 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a key question for all Western military strategists. If the Soviets are indeed willing to tolerate high human sacrifice in warfare this obviously puts them at a military advantage. The perceived wisdom, hitherto, is that the Soviets are indeed willing to tolerate high casualties in battle - this, initial, view is reinforced by myths about Stalin clearing minefields by marching penal battalions across them. Professor Sella, however, comes to a different conclusion. He surveys Soviet attitudes to the military-medical service; to its own prisoners of war; and to the ethos of fighting to the death, considering how attitudes have changed from Czarist times to the present. He concludes that the Soviets are less ready to tolerate massive sacrifices than has been supposed; but that this position stems as much from utilitarian-military logic as from compassion.

Download or read book Making Sense of War written by Amir Weiner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-01-16 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Making Sense of War, Amir Weiner reconceptualizes the entire historical experience of the Soviet Union from a new perspective, that of World War II. Breaking with the conventional interpretation that views World War II as a post-revolutionary addendum, Weiner situates this event at the crux of the development of the Soviet--not just the Stalinist--system. Through a richly detailed look at Soviet society as a whole, and at one Ukrainian region in particular, the author shows how World War II came to define the ways in which members of the political elite as well as ordinary citizens viewed the world and acted upon their beliefs and ideologies. The book explores the creation of the myth of the war against the historiography of modern schemes for social engineering, the Holocaust, ethnic deportations, collaboration, and postwar settlements. For communist true believers, World War II was the purgatory of the revolution, the final cleansing of Soviet society of the remaining elusive "human weeds" who intruded upon socialist harmony, and it brought the polity to the brink of communism. Those ridden with doubts turned to the war as a redemption for past wrongs of the regime, while others hoped it would be the death blow to an evil enterprise. For all, it was the Armageddon of the Bolshevik Revolution. The result of Weiner's inquiry is a bold, compelling new picture of a Soviet Union both reinforced and enfeebled by the experience of total war.

Download or read book Stalin s Holy War written by Steven Merritt Miner and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2003-10-16 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Histories of the USSR during World War II generally portray the Kremlin's restoration of the Russian Orthodox Church as an attempt by an ideologically bankrupt regime to appeal to Russian nationalism in order to counter the mortal threat of Nazism. Here, Steven Merritt Miner argues that this version of events, while not wholly untrue, is incomplete. Using newly opened Soviet-era archives as well as neglected British and American sources, he examines the complex and profound role of religion, especially Russian Orthodoxy, in the policies of Stalin's government during World War II. Miner demonstrates that Stalin decided to restore the Church to prominence not primarily as a means to stoke the fires of Russian nationalism but as a tool for restoring Soviet power to areas that the Red Army recovered from German occupation. The Kremlin also harnessed the Church for propaganda campaigns aimed at convincing the Western Allies that the USSR, far from being a source of religious repression, was a bastion of religious freedom. In his conclusion, Miner explores how Stalin's religious policy helped shape the postwar history of the USSR.

Download or read book Russia s War written by Richard Overy and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1998-08-01 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A penetrating and compassionate book on the most gigantic military struggle in world history."--The New York Times Book Review "An extraordinary tale... Overy's engrossing book provides extensive details of teh slaughter, brutality, bitterness and destruction on the massive front from the White Sea to the flank of Asia."--Chicago Tribune The Russian war effort to defeat invading Axis powers, an effort that assembled the largest military force in recorded history and that cost the lives of more than 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians, was the decisive factor for securing an Allied victory. Now with access to the wealth of film archives and interview material from Russia used to produce the ten-hour television documentary Russia's War, Richard Overy tackles the many persuasive questions surrounding this conflict. Was Stalin a military genius? Was the defense of Mother Russia a product of something greater than numbers of tanks and planes--of something deep within the Russian soul?

Download or read book How the Jews Defeated Hitler written by Benjamin Ginsberg and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2013-04-04 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most common assumptions about World War II is that the Jews did not actively or effectively resist their own extermination at the hands of the Nazis. In this powerful book, Benjamin Ginsberg convincingly argues that the Jews not only resisted the Germans but actually played a major role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. The question, he contends, is not whether the Jews fought but where and by what means. True, many Jews were poorly armed, outnumbered, and without resources, but Ginsberg shows persuasively that this myth of passivity is solely that—a myth. The author describes how Jews resisted Nazism strongly in four major venues. First, they served as members of the Soviet military and as engineers who designed and built many pivotal Soviet weapons, including the T-34 tank. Second, a number were soldiers in the U.S. armed forces, and many also played key roles in discrediting American isolationism, in providing the Roosevelt administration with the support it needed for preparing for war, and in building the atomic bomb. Third, they made vital contributions to the Allies—the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain—in espionage and intelligence (especially cryptanalysis), and fourth, they assumed important roles in several European anti-Nazi resistance movements that often disrupted Germany’s fragile military supply lines. In this compelling, cogent history, we discover that the Jews were an important factor in Hitler’s defeat.

Download or read book Ivan s War written by Catherine Merridale and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2007-04-01 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unmasking the Untold Story of World War II Of the thirty million who fought in the eastern front of World War II, eight 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. Sourced from previously inaccessible military archives, personal diaries, and intimate veterans' narratives, author Catherine Merridale unveils the untold journey of these soldiers from their first encounter with the German offensive to their hard-earned victory in Stalingrad–a place where survival was measured in mere hours. Accompany these brave hearts into the morose streets of Berlin, as they face their anger, fear, and finally, a bitter homecoming, denied of the new life for which they sacrificed everything. Discover this unique fusion of patriotism, courage, and human spirit that drove these undernourished, poorly led troops to overthrow the Nazi menace. Ivan's War emphatically places these invisible millions at the core of their deserved historical context, accounting for their major role in shaping a new era.

Download or read book The Culture of Military Innovation written by Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-27 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book studies the impact of cultural factors on the course of military innovations. One would expect that countries accustomed to similar technologies would undergo analogous changes in their perception of and approach to warfare. However, the intellectual history of the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) in Russia, the US, and Israel indicates the opposite. The US developed technology and weaponry for about a decade without reconceptualizing the existing paradigm about the nature of warfare. Soviet 'new theory of victory' represented a conceptualization which chronologically preceded technological procurement. Israel was the first to utilize the weaponry on the battlefield, but was the last to develop a conceptual framework that acknowledged its revolutionary implications. Utilizing primary sources that had previously been completely inaccessible, and borrowing methods of analysis from political science, history, anthropology, and cognitive psychology, this book suggests a cultural explanation for this puzzling transformation in warfare. The Culture of Military Innovation offers a systematic, thorough, and unique analytical approach that may well be applicable in other perplexing strategic situations. Though framed in the context of specific historical experience, the insights of this book reveal important implications related to conventional, subconventional, and nonconventional security issues. It is therefore an ideal reference work for practitioners, scholars, teachers, and students of security studies.

Download or read book Stalingrad written by Jochen Hellbeck and published by Public Affairs. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The turning point of World War II came at Stalingrad. Hitler’s soldiers stormed the city in September 1942 in a bid to complete the conquest of Europe. Yet Stalingrad never fell. After months of bitter fighting, 100,000 surviving Germans, huddled in the ruined city, surrendered to Soviet troops. During the battle and shortly after its conclusion, scores of Red Army commanders and soldiers, party officials and workers spoke with a team of historians who visited from Moscow to record their conversations. The tapestry of their voices provides groundbreaking insights into the thoughts and feelings of Soviet citizens during wartime. Legendary sniper Vasily Zaytsev recounted the horrors he witnessed at Stalingrad: “You see young girls, children hanging from trees in the park.[...] That has a tremendous impact.” Nurse Vera Gurova attended hundreds of wounded soldiers in a makeshift hospital every day, but she couldn’t forget one young amputee who begged her to avenge his suffering. “Every soldier and officer in Stalingrad was itching to kill as many Germans as possible,” said Major Nikolai Aksyonov. These testimonials were so harrowing and candid that the Kremlin forbade their publication, and they were forgotten by modern history—until now. Revealed here in English for the first time, they humanize the Soviet defenders and allow Jochen Hellbeck, in Stalingrad, to present a definitive new portrait of the most fateful battle of World War II.

Download or read book Why the Allies Won written by R. J. Overy and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1997 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Overy has written a masterpiece of analytical history, posing and answering one of the great questions of the century."--Sunday Times (London)

Download or read book The Soviets Their Successors and the Middle East written by Rosemary Hollis and published by Springer. This book was released on 1993-09-20 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife written by Candi K. Cann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-06-27 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook traces the history of the changing notion of what it means to die and examines the many constructions of afterlife in literature, text, ritual, and material culture throughout time. The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems, and debates in this exciting subject. Comprising twenty-nine chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into three parts and covers the following important themes: The study of dying, death, and grief Disposal of the dead: past, present, and future Representations of death: narratives and rhetoric Youth meets death: a juxtaposition Questionable deaths and afterlives: suicide, ghosts, and avatars Material corpses and imagined afterlives around the world Within these sections, central issues, debates, and problems are examined, including: the world of death and dying from various cultural viewpoints and timeframes, cultural and social constructions of the definition of death, disposal practices, and views of the afterlife. The Routledge Handbook of Death and the Afterlife is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, and sociology.

Download or read book Operation Barbarossa written by André Mineau and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book purports that, given Operation Barbarossa’s concept and scope, it would have been impossible without Nazi ideology, that we cannot understand it in the absence of its reference to the Holocaust. It asks and attempts to answer whether we can describe ideology without reference to ethics and speak about genocide while ignoring philosophy.

Download or read book Sacrifice of the Generals written by Michael Parrish and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It also includes a preface that contributes important contextual information on personnel organization and losses of the Soviet Army, essays containing extensive bibliographies, and a foreword by John Erickson, the foremost Western historian of the Soviet armed forces." "This unique research tool greatly increases our understanding of the Soviet Union's mighty World War II effort and related Stalinist politics during its greatest hour. Based on the latest declassified sources, Parrish combines into one volume crucial information that has been widely scattered among many different locations and difficult to access."--Jacket.

Download or read book American Defence Annual 1994 written by Charles F. Hermann and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 1998-06-03 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No descriptive material is available for this title.

Download or read book The Humanitarians written by David P. Forsythe and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-08-11 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) coordinates the world's largest private relief system for conflict situations. Its staff operates throughout the world, and in recent years the ICRC has mounted large operations in the Balkans and Somalia. Yet despite its very important role its internal workings are mysterious and often secretive. This book examines the ICRC from its origins in the mid-nineteenth century up to the present day, and provides a comprehensive overview of a unique private organisation, whose governing body remains all-Swiss, but which is recognized in international law as if it were an inter-governmental organization. David Forsythe focuses on the policy making and field work of the ICRC, while not ignoring international humanitarian law. He explores how it exercises its independence, impartiality, and neutrality to try to protect prisoners in Iraq, displaced and starving civilians in Somalia, and families separated by conflict in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. David Forsythe received the Distinguished Scholar Award for 2007 from the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Association.

Download or read book Family Punishment in Nazi Germany written by R. Loeffel and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-05-29 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Third Reich, political dissidents were not the only ones liable to be punished for their crimes. Their parents, siblings and relatives also risked reprisals. This concept - known as Sippenhaft – was based in ideas of blood and purity. This definitive study surveys the threats, fears and infliction of this part of the Nazi system of terror.

Download or read book The Stuff of Soldiers written by Brandon M. Schechter and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Stuff of Soldiers uses everyday objects to tell the story of the Great Patriotic War as never before. Brandon Schechter attends to a diverse array of things—from spoons to tanks—to show how a wide array of citizens became soldiers, and how the provisioning of material goods separated soldiers from civilians. Through a fascinating examination of leaflets, proclamations, newspapers, manuals, letters to and from the front, diaries, and interviews, The Stuff of Soldiers reveals how the use of everyday items made it possible to wage war. The dazzling range of documents showcases ethnic diversity, women's particular problems at the front, and vivid descriptions of violence and looting. Each chapter features a series of related objects: weapons, uniforms, rations, and even the knick-knacks in a soldier's rucksack. These objects narrate the experience of people at war, illuminating the changes taking place in Soviet society over the course of the most destructive conflict in recorded history. Schechter argues that spoons, shovels, belts, and watches held as much meaning to the waging of war as guns and tanks. In The Stuff of Soldiers, he describes the transformative potential of material things to create a modern culture, citizen, and soldier during World War II.