Berliner Zinnfiguren/Books & Media/Books/1933-1945 (WW II)/Russia products

Allister, Lindsay: Newtownards in the Great War 19,95 €

Wed, 13 May 2026 07:05:07 +0200

Even before the First World War broke out, Ireland had already begun to take up arms. Conflict and political unrest dominated the minds of all as the country struggled for its liberation. Newtownards was destined to become the eye of the storm that would shape the nation for the next hundred years. Yet, as war threatened the lives of countless people, it was the men of Ulsterand of all Irelandwho answered the call. *Newtownards in the Great War* tells the stories of those men and women who were willing to sacrifice everything they possessedto escape persecution and to serve their King with pride. From the origins of the UVF to the partition of Ireland, Newtownards and the Ards Peninsula guarded the secrets of these men, shaping the world in ways no one could have imagined.

Sokolov, Boris: Operation Bagration 22,95 €

Sun, 10 May 2026 08:25:09 +0200

"Operation Bagration" analyzes the major Russian offensive in Belarus during the summer of 1944, examining both the planning of the operation and the German plans for the summer campaign of that same year. Based on extensive research, the study seeks to determine the actual balance of forces between the Soviet and German militaries, as well as their actual losses during the operation. Alongside several astute decisions, the command staffs on both sides committed critical strategic errors as well as grave tactical blunders; all these aspects are examined in this book to construct a comprehensive overview of the campaign. Furthermore, a link to "Operation Overlord" is established by demonstrating that the Soviet forces were only able to shatter the German Army Group Centreat a time when Germany's elite mobile units were tied down in Francethanks to the Allied landings in Normandy.

Caza, Shawn M.: Under the Red Banner 72,95 €

Wed, 20 May 2026 07:05:11 +0200

Based on formerly secret Soviet military recordssupplemented by comprehensive analyses, photographs, and over 100 official maps and sketches*Under the Red Banner* traces the day-to-day operational history of a Soviet armored unit throughout the entire Second World War. The unitwhich was renamed several times over the course of the conflict (9th Tank Division, 104th Tank Division, 145th Tank Brigade, and 43rd Guards Tank Brigade)fought in both well-known battles (Smolensk, Moscow, Operation Bagration, and East Prussia) and some of the "forgotten battles" of the Eastern Front (Operation Mars, Orsha, and Vitebsk). *Under the Red Banner* offers unique insights into the activities of an armored unit providing infantry support, detailing the actual experiences of the troopsfrom training and combat preparation to the fighting itself. Summaries and tables provide extensive information regarding the unit's formal and actual organizational structure, its equipment strength, as well as its casualty figures and repair rates. In many instances, these details diverge significantly from the narrative presented by previous historical accounts. *Under the Red Banner* demonstrates how much closer we can now come to a comprehensive understanding of events on the Eastern Front thanks to the analysis of Soviet military records; furthermore, the work shows that it is now possible to reconstruct every single step and action of a unit without gapseven within the context of a "forgotten battle." The book is aimed equally at historians and anyone with an interest in the history of armored warfareincluding wargamers. Many of the operations described are presented in such a level of detail that they can be reenacted using popular computer or tabletop games.

Keding, Ekatarina: Erinnerung zwischen Triumph und Trauma 80,00 €

Sun, 17 May 2026 08:20:05 +0200

This study examines the development of Belarusian memory culture surrounding the Second World War, which continues to shape the country's historical self-understanding. Based on a microhistorical analysis of central and local museums, memorials, and monuments, and relying primarily on archival sources, it revises the image of a monolithic memory culture. Instead, Ekaterina Keding demonstrates that war memory, both in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods, has always been heterogeneous, context-dependent, and politically instrumentalized. War memory was shaped by a multitude of actors, each pursuing their own interests, thus creating a diverse and dynamic narrative. The polyphony and complexity of this memory, traced over several decades, along with the resulting tensions between a commemoration "from above" and one "from below"between triumph and traumaoffer profound insights into the formation of Belarusian identity and a memory culture characterized by continuous change and abrupt ruptures.

Hamilton, Aaron S.: Bloody Streets 74,95 €

Wed, 20 May 2026 07:05:11 +0200

This is a comprehensive reference work on tank warfare during the Battle of Berlin. The Red Army launched its last offensive in Europe with the largest concentration of tanks and self-propelled guns to date. Nevertheless, it lost more tanks each day of fighting than in any other Allied battle of World War II. Most of the tank losses in Berlin were caused by a new German weapon: the Panzerfaust. This handheld rocket was used in large numbers for the first time and revolutionized anti-tank warfare. With this new weapon, anyone, regardless of age and with rudimentary training, could easily destroy the largest armored vehicles on the battlefield. To ensure the survival of its tanks and self-propelled guns, the Red Army further developed the concept of the assault group and ordered its tanks to be protected with new anti-tank systems. After the Battle of Berlin, the Soviets fundamentally changed the structure of their tank armies and the associated offensive doctrine. Many of the insights documented by the Red Army at that time are still relevant today for tank tactics in complex terrain. This book presents, for the first time in English, over one hundred pages of Soviet intelligence on the use of tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery, and the development of assault groups in the Battle of Berlin. German anti-tank tactics are detailed based on observations from Red Army combat units involved in the battle. This volume serves as a reference work on tank tactics in the Battle of Berlin. Hundreds of wartime black-and-white photographs of Soviet and German tanks and artillery illustrate the book. Each photograph includes a detailed description with technical specifications and historical context. The photographs are supplemented by over one hundred color profiles, as well as 2D and 3D renderings of German and Soviet tanks, including vehicles from the Allied Lend-Lease program. Furthermore, the book contains hundreds of color photographs of surviving armored vehicles from both sides that saw action in Berlin. These provide modelers with excellent reference material, including all three variants of the T-34/85. Of particular interest are the graphics illustrating the various assault groups of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts. These were formed to protect the armored units and overcome the determined German resistance. Researchers, tank enthusiasts, and model builders will find a wealth of new material here on the Battle of Berlin from the unique perspective of armored warfare. This is the first of several new volumes on various aspects of the Battle of Berlin, building upon decades of research for the original work, "Bloody Streets."

Harrison, Richard W.: The Berlin Operation 1945 59,95 €

Sat, 23 May 2026 07:40:09 +0200

The book tells the story of the Red Army's penultimate offensive in the war in Europe. Here, forces from three fronts (the 2nd and 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian) advanced across the Oder, surrounded the defenders of the German capital, captured the city and pushed westward to join the Western Allies in central Germany. This is another study in a series compiled by the General Staff of the Soviet Army, which in the post-war years set itself the task of collecting and generalising the experience of the war in order to train the higher staff of the armed forces in the conduct of large-scale offensive operations. The study is divided into three parts. The first part contains a brief strategic overview of the situation in the spring of 1945, with a particular focus on German preparations for the inevitable Soviet attack. This section also includes an examination of the decisions made by the Stavka of the Supreme Command regarding the execution of the operation. As usual, the material, technical and other preparations of the fronts for the offensive are discussed in detail. These include plans for artillery, artillery and engineer support, as well as the work of the army services and political organs and the strengths, capabilities and tasks of the individual armies. The second part deals with the Red Army's breakthrough of the German Oder defensive position and the encirclement of the Berlin garrison. It covers the difficulties encountered by the 1st Belorussian Front in overcoming the defensive line along the Seelow Heights on the direct route to Berlin, as well as the easier crossing of the Oder by the 1st Ukrainian Front and its secondary offensive along the Dresden axis. The breakthrough of the 2nd Belorussian Front and its advance along the Baltic coast are also covered. Part Three covers the intense fighting to defeat the city's defenders from late April until the garrison's surrender on 2 May, as well as operations in the area until Germany's formal surrender. This section contains a series of detailed descriptions of the urban fighting at battalion and regimental level. It concludes with conclusions about the role of the various branches of the armed forces in the operation.

Harrison, Richard W.: The Budapest Operation 49,95 €

Sat, 23 May 2026 07:40:09 +0200

The Budapest Operation (29 October 1944 to 13 February 1945): An operational-strategic study examines in detail the Red Army's operations as it approached Budapest and the final capture of the city after a long siege. The first part of the study deals with the arrival of the Red Army in central Hungary after the successful completion of Operation Iasi-Kishinev at the end of August 1944 and the subsequent development of the offensive through Romania, Bulgaria and eastern Yugoslavia. By mid-October, the Soviets were ready to continue the offensive in Hungary and its capital Budapest, the capture of which would pave the way for a further advance into Austria and southern Germany. This study examines the rapid advance to the outskirts of Budapest, where stubborn German-Hungarian resistance forced them to a halt, whereupon the Soviets attempted to encircle the city and finally closed the ring at the end of December. It also examines the Germans' repeated attempts to break the siege with several counter-offensives to the west and south of the city. However, these were all repulsed in heavy fighting, and the enemy garrison was forced to surrender on 13 February. This study also devotes considerable attention to the combat forces (artillery, armoured and mechanised forces, air force and engineer troops) during the operation. The other study is an internal document of the General Staff Academy dealing with the activities of the 3rd Ukrainian Front during the operation in Budapest. During most of the operation, the 3rd Ukrainian Front played a clearly subordinate role and was tasked with protecting the flank of the Soviet advance through Yugoslavia and Hungary, while the 2nd Ukrainian Front was to receive the credit for taking Budapest. However, fierce enemy resistance along the approaches to Budapest gradually forced the Soviet high command to shift its efforts increasingly to the right bank of the Danube, first to support the isolation of the Budapest garrison within the city and then to repel repeated German counter-offensives to liberate the city. It was the successful repulsion of these attacks by the 3rd Ukrainian Front that ultimately enabled the Soviets to achieve the surrender of the garrison and the end of the operation.

Harrison, Richard W.: Prelude to Berlin 59,95 €

Sat, 23 May 2026 07:40:09 +0200

The book provides a comprehensive overview of the Soviet Union's strategic offensives north of the Carpathian Mountains in the winter of 1945. During this offensive, the Red Army broke through German defensive lines in Poland and East Prussia and ultimately occupied all of Germany east of the Oder River. The book consists mainly of articles that appeared in various military journals during the first ten years after the war. The General Staff Directorate, which was tasked with investigating the war experience, published these studies, although other sources are also available. A particular highlight are personal memoirs that offer a rare insight into the Soviet Union's strategic planning for the winter-spring campaign of 1945. Also included are documents on the operational-strategic execution of the various operations, which were compiled and published after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The book is divided into several parts according to the operations carried out. These include the Vistula-Oder operation of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts from their respective bridgeheads on the Vistula. This gigantic operation, involving over a million men and several thousand tanks, artillery and other weapons, broke through the German defensive lines and advanced in a single leap to the Oder, less than 100 kilometres from Berlin, from where they launched their final attack on the Reich in April. Equally impressive was the offensive by the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts against the German stronghold of East Prussia. This operation helped to clear the flank further south and take long-awaited revenge for the defeat of the Russian army in 1914. These efforts cut off German forces in East Prussia and culminated in an operation to clear the flanks in Pomerania and storm the East Prussian capital of Königsberg in April. The study also examines in great detail the operations of the 1st Ukrainian Front in Upper and Lower Silesia in February and March 1945. These operations cleared the army's flanks in the south and deprived Germany of one of its last major industrial and agricultural areas.

Saal,: Kriegskindheiten im besetzten Belarus 1941-1944 55,00 €

Tue, 19 May 2026 06:55:08 +0200

Children are among the first victims of war, but they can also be powerful actors in their own right. They are an essential part of asymmetrical war societies and shape coexistence in both the short and long term. Yuliya von Saal examines the surprisingly diverse experiences of Soviet children in the Nazi-occupied BSSR and in the immediate post-war period, showing that minors were by no means just a marginalised group of victims of the war of extermination. Depending on their age, gender and Nazi racial hierarchy, children participated in the war. Children grew up early, discovered scope for action and developed survival strategies that adults often did not have. At the same time, the author makes it clear that there was no homogeneous Soviet childhood during the war and how important it is to integrate children as subjects with their own behaviours into our understanding of the past.

Harrison, Richard W.: The Iasi-Kishinev Operation 49,95 €

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:30:23 +0200

The book describes in detail the Soviet preparations and execution of the Red Army's massive offensive in Romania in the summer of 1944. As the seventh of ten strategic operations carried out by Soviet forces that year, the operation successfully accomplished the task of destroying German forces in northern Romania and removing Germany's Romanian satellite state from the war, and was the first step towards Stalin's consolidation of a Balkan empire. Unlike many others in this series, this study is based only in part on materials published by the historical department of the Soviet General Staff. Nevertheless, these and other materials were written and published with the aim of generalising the experience of the war in order to train commanders and staff in the preparation and conduct of offensive operations on multiple fronts. The study is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the operation as a whole. This includes the preparations of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts for the start of the operation. It also includes a general strategic assessment of the situation in the summer of 1944 and the Stavka's instructions for conducting an operation along the southern strategic direction. This is followed by a detailed examination of the plans of the two fronts for organising and exploiting a breakthrough of the enemy front, as well as the plans of the individual army commanders for their own sectors. The study focuses on standard operational indices such as the length of the attack front, the density of forces along the breakthrough front, the echelon of forces for the attack, and cooperation between the branches of the armed forces. While the first part provides an operational-strategic overview of the operation, the second part focuses entirely on the tactical-operational level. This study is actually a doctoral thesis on the 37th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, which played the leading role in the front's offensive across the Dniester, from where it then joined forces with the 2nd Ukrainian Front to encircle the German 6th Army. Many of the operational indicators highlighted in the first part are repeated here in even greater detail. The successful completion of Operation Iasi-Kishinev destroyed the German position in the Balkans and laid the foundation for the Red Army's subsequent advance into Hungary and Central Europe. As one of the army's more successful offensive operations, it is worth studying for both history buffs and professional officers.

Sumpf, Alexandre: Les Soviétiques en guerre 1939-1949 32,95 €

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:30:23 +0200

Within ten years, between 1939 and 1949, the USSR developed from an isolated nation into a superpower on a par with the United States. For its leaders, the Second World War was marked by sacrifice and heroism. For the people, however, this period was marked by great catastrophes: the Shoah, the famine of 1946-1947, and civil war in Ukraine and the Baltic states. This Great Patriotic War, which Stalin and his successors sought to glorify, claimed more than 26 million victims. In this historical fresco, Alexandre Sumpf sheds light on all aspects of the conflict, focusing both on military events and on the understanding of this decade of war by those who lived through it, from the Supreme Soviet to the ravines of Babyn Yar. A work based on numerous eyewitness accounts and unpublished archival documents.

Harrison, Richard (Hrsg.): Battle of the Dnepr 49,95 €

Tue, 12 May 2026 07:00:12 +0200

The book describes a decisive phase of the Red Army's advance along the strategic southwestern direction during the major offensive that followed the battles in the Kursk Bulge area in July and August 1943. The Germans, now on the strategic defensive in the east, attempted to retreat and consolidate their front along the Dnieper River. The success of the Red Army in breaking through these expectations in this particularly important section is the subject of this study. It is a composite work based on three studies by the Military History Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army, which was tasked with collecting and analyzing war experiences. The first is a comprehensive internal document from 1946, which was finally published in Russia in 2007, albeit with numerous additions in the form of comments and other information not included in the original. The present work omits these additions and instead provides its own comments where necessary. Two short articles from another publication round off the collection. The book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the efforts of the Voronezh Front (later renamed the First Ukrainian Front) under General N. F. Vatutin to capitalize on the Soviet victory in the Battle of Kursk and carry the war to the Dnieper and beyond. This included pursuing the retreating Germans and attempting to capture the crossings over the Dnieper in the Kiev area before the Germans could cross them and consolidate their position. Although they succeeded in capturing several small bridgeheads, the Soviets were initially unable to develop them into operationally significant bridgeheads. By shifting their efforts to the bridgehead north of Kiev, the Soviets finally managed to break out and capture Kiev, although a German counterattack from the Zhytomyr area set them back somewhat. Nevertheless, by the end of the year, the Red Army in this area was ready to resume the offensive to recapture the right bank of Ukraine. The two articles that make up the second part deal with the combat operations of the Steppe Front (later renamed the Second Ukrainian Front) under General I. S. Konev through Poltava and Kremenchug, as well as the crossing of the Dnieper and the capture of bridgeheads south of Kiev. This is a rather narrowly focused tactical-operational study dealing with the efforts of the front's 37th and 52nd Armies to expand their positions on the right bank of Ukraine into operational bridgeheads that could support a larger offensive to the west in 1944.

Harrison, Richard (Hrsg.): The Battle of Moscow 1941-1942 50,95 €

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:30:23 +0200

This is a detailed examination of one of the most important turning points of the Second World War from the Soviet perspective. The Battle of Moscow marked the climax of Hitler's Operation Barbarossa, which was intended to destroy the Soviet Union in a single campaign and secure German supremacy in Europe. The failure of this endeavour condemned Germany to a protracted war that it could not win. This work was originally published in 1943 under the title Razgrom Nemetskikh Voisk pod Moskvoi (The Defeat of German Forces around Moscow). It was written by the military history department of the Red Army General Staff, whose task was to collect and analyse experiences from the war and pass them on to the higher echelons of the army. It was a collaborative effort by many different contributors, edited by Marshal Boris Mikhailovich Shaposhnikov, former Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army and then head of the General Staff Academy. The book is divided into three parts, each dealing with a specific phase of the battle. The first part traces the defensive operations of the Western Front along the Moscow direction during the last advance of Army Group Centre on the capital in November and December 1941. The study focuses in particular on the Red Army's resistance to German attempts to bypass Moscow from the north. Equally important were the defensive operations south of Moscow, where the Germans attempted to advance their other flank. The second part deals with the first phase of the Red Army's counteroffensive, which aimed to repel the German pincer movements and eliminate the immediate threat to Moscow. Here, the Soviets succeeded in pushing back the Germans and crushing both advances, especially in the south, where they were able to penetrate deep into the enemy front in the west and northwest. The final section examines the further development of the counteroffensive until the end of January 1942. This section highlights the Soviet advance along the entire front and their determined but unsuccessful attempts to cut off the German advance at Rzhev-Vyaz'ma. From this point on, the front essentially stabilised, whereupon events shifted to the south. This new translation into English makes this valuable study accessible to a wider readership.

Harrison, Richard (Hrsg.): Rollback 50,95 €

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:30:23 +0200

The book covers the period from mid-December 1942 to mid-February 1943, one of the most critical phases of the war on the Eastern Front. After encircling an entire German army in Stalingrad, the Soviets attempted to exploit the broken Axis front in southern Russia in order to destroy the Italian and Hungarian allies of the Germans and liberate the economically important areas of eastern Ukraine. This study is based on a series of articles from the war and post-war periods published by the Directorate of War History Research of the General Staff. It also includes documents on the operational and strategic execution of the various operations, which were compiled and published after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Several articles deal with the preparation and execution of Operation Middle Don by the Southwestern Front in December 1942. Originally planned as an ambitious offensive to cut off German troops in the North Caucasus by advancing on Rostov, the operation was later reoriented to counter the threat posed by German efforts to relieve Stalingrad. The offensive not only achieved its goal of repelling the German attack and thus destroying the Stalingrad garrison, but also destroyed the Italian army in the east. The Soviet Voronezh Front then advanced further up the Don River and, in Operation Ostrogozhsk-Rossosh', destroyed the remaining Italian forces in the area as well as the Hungarian army. This enabled the Red Army to capture Kharkov and advance almost to the Dnieper River by mid-February, before being repelled by a skilful German counteroffensive. The territorial gains of this operation paved the way for the subsequent Voronezh-Kastornoye Operation, which enabled the Soviets to advance as far as Kursk before exhaustion and growing German resistance brought the offensive to a halt. Further south, the Soviets succeeded in capturing Voroshilovgrad and advancing into the industrial Donets Basin. The book also includes a detailed Soviet study of the use of tank and mechanised corps during the campaign. The conclusions drawn here had a direct influence on the restructuring of the Red Army's tank armies in time for the summer campaign of 1943.

Sdvizhkov, Igor: Confronting Case Blue 59,95 €

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:30:09 +0200

Author Igor Sdvizhkov takes a close look at the attempt by the Chibisov Operational Group of the Bryansk Front to break up the northern wing of the German advance into the Caucasus northwest of Voronezh in July 1942. Using previously secret Soviet documents and German records, Sdvizhkov focuses in particular on the role of General A. I. Liziukov as commander of the 2nd Tank Corps in the counteroffensive after his 5th Tank Army was disbanded following unsuccessful counterattacks in early July. The Soviet attacks led to nine days of heavy, fluctuating fighting involving tens of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of tanks and guns on both sides, threatening to isolate the German forces holding Voronezh. Sdvizhkov also describes the German response to the initial advance of Operation Chibisov: a counterattack carried out mainly with the forces of the 9th Panzer Division, which was in a reserve position at the time of the new Soviet offensive and served as a fire brigade. The German counteroffensive weakened the Soviet attacks, surrounded parts of the Chibisov operational group and finally stabilised the faltering German front northwest of Voronezh for the time being. General Liziukov disappeared during the attack of the 2nd Tank Corps, and the author discusses why the command of the Bryansk Front and the Chibisov Operational Group initially made little or no effort to find the general. Sdvizhkov also addresses the numerous controversies that arose later due to false and/or misleading recollections and the complete inability to find General Liziukov or his remains. After careful examination of the available evidence, Sdvizhkov provides a coherent and convincing explanation of what happened.

Gerasimova, Svetlana: The Rzhev Slaughterhouse. The Red Army's Forgotten 15-month Campaign against Army Group Center 1942-1943 36,95 €

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:25:24 +0200

Historians consider the Battle of Rzhev to be one of the bloodiest in the history of the Great Patriotic War and Zhukov's greatest defeat. Veterans called this colossal battle, which lasted a total of 15 months, the slaughterhouse of Rzhev or the massacre, while German generals called this city the cornerstone of the Eastern Front and the gateway to Berlin. The military operations in the Rzhev-Viazma area are comparable to the Battle of Stalingrad in terms of their territorial extent, the number of troops involved, their duration and the losses incurred, and in many respects even exceed it. The total losses of the Red Army around Rzhev amounted to 2,000,000 men; the total losses of the Wehrmacht are still not known exactly today. Why did one of the largest battles of the Second World War in the Soviet Union fall into oblivion? Why were the forces of the German Army Group Centre in the Rzhev-Viazma outpost not encircled and destroyed? Whose fault is it that the German troops were able to withdraw from an area that was never completely sealed off? Is it justified to blame G.K. Zhukov for this lost victory? This book, recognised in Russia as one of the best domestic studies on the Battle of Rzhev, provides answers to all these questions. The author, Svetlana Gerasimova, has lived and worked amid the remaining traces of this colossal battle, the tens of thousands of unmarked graves and the now silent bunkers and bunker complexes, and has dedicated herself to researching its history.

Lopukhovsky, Lev: The Viaz'ma Catastrophe 1941 81,95 €

Sat, 23 May 2026 07:35:09 +0200

The study describes one of the most horrific tragedies of the Second World War and the events that led up to it. The terrible miscalculations of the Stavka, the Supreme Soviet War Council, and the front commands led to the death and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of their own troops in October 1941. Until recently, the extent of the defeats suffered by the Red Army at Vyazma and Bryansk was simply hushed up. This book presents for the first time a complete and detailed picture of the fighting that led to this tragedy, based on previously unknown or underused documents. The author was inspired to write this book by his years of fruitless searches for information about the fate of his father, Colonel N. I. Lopukhovsky, the commander of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, who disappeared along with his unit in the maelstrom of Operation Typhoon. He was determined to break the official silence surrounding the military disaster during the advances on Moscow in the autumn of 1941. The author also presents documents from German military archives that will undoubtedly be of interest not only to scholars but also to students of the Eastern Front of the Second World War. Lopuchowski makes a strong case for the true extent of the Red Army's losses in men and equipment, which far exceeded official figures. In the epilogue, he briefly discusses the research he has done to uncover the circumstances of the deaths of Soviet soldiers previously listed as missing in action, including his own father. The narrative is enhanced by numerous photographs, colour maps and tables.

Hellbeck, Jochen: Die Stalingrad-Protokolle. Sowjetische Augenzeugen berichten aus der Schlacht 28,00 €

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:25:24 +0200

Sensational and authentic: the Battle of Stalingrad from a Soviet perspective . In December 1942, a group of historians from Moscow travelled to Stalingrad. They wanted to record for posterity the months-long battle, which the world watched with bated breath, from the perspective of the people who fought there. They spoke to commanders and ordinary soldiers, commissars, snipers and medics. Residents of the city also reported on their experiences during the fighting - openly and up close. These unique interview transcripts have fundamentally changed our view of the battle that marked the turning point in the Second World War. They reveal the self-image and motivation of the Red Army soldiers and their perception of their German opponents. After the war, the Stalingrad protocols were locked away and disappeared into the archives. Seventy years after the battle, they were presented by Jochen Hellbeck in the first edition of this book - it is being published again on the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

Beyda, Oleg/Petrov, Igor: Soviet Turncoats. General Andrei Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Army, 1942-1945 31,95 €

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 07:34:00 +0200

In April 1945, in one of the last battles of the Second World War, Russian troops in German uniforms fought against the advancing Red Army on the Oder to the east of Berlin. Why did the Russians fight against their compatriots and how did the Soviet collaboration come about? In this insightful and meticulously researched study, Oleg Beyda and Igor Petrov provide answers to these questions and vividly explore the wider issue of Soviet citizens' collaboration with the Axis powers. Their work sheds fascinating new light on this long-suppressed aspect of the German-Soviet war, a crucial issue that remains highly controversial in Russia today. The most famous figure in this complicated story is Andrei Vlasov, the captured Red Army general who defected to the Germans and became commander of the Russian Liberation Army. His career during the war and that of other Soviet prisoners of war and Russian emigrants who joined him are the central figures of the story. The motivations of these men varied: while some switched allegiance out of conviction, many POWs had the choice between collaboration or a slow death in a German prison camp. As the book shows, the Russian Liberation Army remained a German propaganda project for most of its history, a hodgepodge of scattered but effective military units of former POWs under strict German command. Nevertheless, Vlasov and his officers sometimes tried to pursue their own policy independently of their German masters. At the very end of the war, in Prague, Vlasov's units fought against German troops in a desperate attempt to "please" the Allies and switched sides again. The challenges these men faced and the choices they had to make between loyalty, anti-Bolshevism and survival make this book a fascinating read.

Beyda, Oleg/Gavrilov, Pavel (Hrsg.): Beyond the Siege of Leningrad. One Woman's Life During and After the Occupation. The recollections of Evdokiia Vasil'evna Baskakova-Bogacheva. 16,95 €

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:25:24 +0200

Moscow-born Evdokiia Vasil'evna Baskakova-Bogacheva (1888-1976), an emigrant to Australia, wrote these memoirs at the age of 81 about her experiences of the German occupation during the siege of Leningrad (now St Petersburg). The text had been forgotten in the Museum of Russian Culture in San Francisco since 1970 until the editors of this volume discovered it. In the memoirs, Evdokiia describes the inferno of the German occupation that she experienced in a suburb of Leningrad in 1941-43, after recounting her youth against the backdrop of the First World War and the two Russian revolutions of 1917. She survived for almost two years almost on the front line, just a few kilometres from the blockade ring. As a doctor, she made herself useful to the occupying authorities and the ever-shrinking city population until her family was evacuated to the West in October 1943. In addition to hunger, discord, disease, the hunt for food and firewood, violence and death, Evdokiia's account also deals with the various forms of co-operation between the Soviet citizens and the new authorities. All the events she remembers can be confirmed by other sources. The introduction and the detailed annotations to the text help the reader to place Evdokiia's memories in time and place and to put them in their historical context.