Customer Reviews

800 Days on the Eastern Front: A Russian Soldier Remembers World War II (Modern War Studies)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Definitely one of the more interesting memoirs from the Eastern Front of WWII. While there isn't as much information in terms of actual combat, at least not as much as I would have liked to read, I was quite impressed with the other stories that the author was able to talk about.

The entire book is quite short, 143 pages, and took me two days of casual reading to finish. The translator helps along in the translation by explaining Russian phrases and words which those not familiar with Russian would be a bit lost without but he also helps the narrative by giving context to the authors stories.

The author definitely had an interesting 'career' throughout the Second World War on the Eastern Front. He was involved in the fighting at Kursk, where he was wounded, as well as operation Bagration, and many other battles with the 354th Rifle Division, and an airborne guards division before that. The 354th belonged to Rokossovsky's front and the 65th Army under Batov, which was involved in many battles throughout the last year of the war.

Some of the more interesting stories were about how the author was sent to a penal company, he left his post without a written order. He was sentenced to three months and served at least one, hard to tell the exact date he was assigned to it. What was interesting about this account was that he explained penal units after a battle would receive a few days of rest, which the regular army units did not even receive. Although penal formations were sent to some of the most dangerous sectors they were treated like a regular unit and supplied like one as well, no one rifle for two men here. Eventually he was discharged on account of his actions in battle and sent to a regular unit.

Another incident had two scouts being accused of rape. They had confessed and the woman who complained about the fact that they raped her daughter and daughter-in-law was shocked to hear that their punishment would be execution. Instead she asked if there was any other way they could amend for their crimes. The only other alternative had the two scouts marry the women they raped. The daughter-in-law already had a husband and so she simply forgave her attacker, while the daughter agreed to the marriage. An interesting story, to say the least!

Other recollections include the author, while being in a penal company, running into two soldiers from the 'blocking detachment' which had to watch out for soldiers retreating without orders. When asked what he was doing, as he was retreating, he was able to convince them that without ammunition for his machine gun there was nothing more he could do, especially since the rest of his crew had already left for the rear. They let him go on his way, it was the first and last encounter he had with any soldiers from a blocking detachment.

The author candidly talks about German POWs and what happened to a few of them when they were captured. Six of them he helped execute with a friend, although as soon as he pulled the trigger he fainted, so how many he killed, if any, will never be known. Another POW proved to have been a Russian who joined the Germans years ago, he was executed. Still another German soldier was witnessed killing an old man, he was given to the local population to do with as they please.

Overall an interesting account of the Eastern Front with many stories you just won't find in a general history of the war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Well worth the money and I'm glad that more and more memoirs are coming out from Soviet veterans, it is about time they had a chance to tell their stories!

Although the negative reviewers might of had valid points, I am not sure the critism is really relevant. I knew two WWII veterans very well, one of whom wrote a brief memoir. Using them as a reference, I do not believe the author was trying to create an exciting, flowing, historically, geographically precise docudrama (if it was I would be very suspect of the motivations and validity of the document and would not have found it near as valuable). I am not sure the author was even trying to educate us although I certainly was. I believe the author was trying to set down in print a brief personal history of WWII obviously, largely from his point of view. What was added by the tranlator was an aid which allowed us to go back in time and perspective without disturbing the author's account. What the author (and the other veterans I know) think is important based on his experiences obviously doesn't always match readers expectations. With this in mind and in response to specific criticism, I found the author's references to various vehicles he encountered interesting and important. Maybe not exciting but, again, that wasn't the point. I thought the historical and geographical descriptions to be adequate in and of themselves. The author's accounts and stories flowed well enough with help from the translator's added descriptions and foot notes.

I bought the book based on a recent description in the WSJ. I had read a book some time ago called "The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier." I thought it would be interesting to compare what sounded like a similar story told by two men of similar rank who fought wars in the same basic geographic area a century apart. The similarities were remarkable and reading both books contributed much to my persective of war and this region. Beyond the obvious basics of survival, what was important to these two men is very much the same. And I think what was important to these two men from their personal perspective in these two "histories" is what the authors and their "helpers" were trying to convey. Both documents succeeded in this respect and did so well enough to, dare I say it, be entertaining. I would give "The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier" 5 stars however. I thought it was a better read. If you must be constantly thrilled and excited by a book to enjoy or be informed by it, subtract one star from each rating. And if you are looking for graphic descriptions of blood, sex and gore, don't bother with either of these reads. A rating of two stars however misses both the point and the mark in my opinion. And thus ends my critique of the critics.

Considering the amount of memoirs available form WW2 it is amazing how few are from a Soviet perspective, at least in English. So in this context the book is a gem and in content it shines.

Nikolai Litvin's memoir is very low key and honest. For the most part he is a driver, either as a commanders chauffeur or with a transport battalion and you get interesting small details as how dirty his one uniform becomes when he served as a mechanic. Don't worry there are hair raising parts as well and sad stories. Litvin comes across as a man doing his duty for his country and never tries to claim credit for extraordinary deeds even if he did a few.

Starting out as an anti tank gunner in a Airborne Division he is wounded early during the battle of Kursk, from there he is transfered to a transportation battalion and is bombed by artillery and planes, he lives when others, even his friends die. At one point he has difficulties in disposing of a friends body. Then he is sentanced to a penal company for desertion when all he does is following a command that turns out to be a suggestion and not a proper command. His time with the penal company is very interesting. Then he gets reassigned to his transport unit and gets drafted from the rear units to the front replace combat losses. All through the story there are accounts of Litvin's personal experience and some very horrible incidents.

Many readers will also find interesting how Litvin is fighting the infantry mans war, very few tanks are metioned at all. In fact with 2/3 of all Germans fighting on the Eastern Front and the majority of both Germans and Russians fighting as infantry this tells how the war was for most, even if it isn't the most glamorous part.

Special mention should also go to Stuart Britton who completes the memoir by adding introductions or adds explanations to fit Litvin's experience into contex and big picture. They summarise the unfolding events and explain strategic and tactical events and I found these parts very useful and informative without casting a shade on Litvin's story. In many occasions Litvin would have been blissfully ignorant of what was really going on but as a reader it is good to be helped along by Britton.

Through Litvin one gets a very diverse view of the Soviet Army and not always its most glamorous side but the toil of the every day soldier. I heartly recommend it for anyone interested in WW2 memoirs and would like read about the experience from the Russian side.

This book did not live up to the hype i was expecting. I felt I read more about him driving around during the 800 days on the eastern front then fighting. Since the RED ARMY refused to let anyone record journals or any other form of communication it's hard to really grasp what a Russian Soldier experienced. If you want to get a better perspective on the eastern front read from a GERMAN SOLDIERS view...i STRONGLY recommend FORGOTTEN SOLDIER or BLOOD RED SNOW.

In recent years we have witnessed the publication of a multitude of military memoirs by Red Army soldiers. These memoirs are important in that they provide new insights into World War II on the Eastern Front.

Nikolai Litvin's remembrances are witness to the versatility, endurance, and patience of the Red Army soldier. A Siberian by birth, Litvin served in artillery, anti-tank, and penal formations and also as a driver to various Soviet commanders. This alone makes his experiences during the war exceptional. Litvin fought at the epic battle of Kursk in July 1943 and remained with the Red Army as it attacked relentlessly westward from the Soviet Union to Nazi Germany.

But Litvin was also unique in that he was officially trained and qualified to drive U.S. Army lend lease vehicles. Hundreds of thousands of these were provided to the Red Army during the war. It is clear that he had a love affair with the various "Willy" jeeps he drove throughout the conflict and his memoirs highlight the mobility American jeeps and trucks provided to the Soviet military. Those vehicles were much appreciated by Red Army soldiers like Litvin. Without them Stalin's legions would have been unable to advance to Berlin as quickly as they did.

Having served his country faithfully through almost three years of brutal combat, Litvin was arrested at the end of the war for possessing a German pistol and sentenced to four years imprisonment in the Soviet Far East.

His memoirs are a testament to the greatness of the Red Army soldier and the brutality of the Soviet system they served.

Nikolai Litvin's memoir is very low key and honest. For the most part he was a driver, either as a commanders' chauffeur or with a transport battalion. There are also some hair raising parts as well and sad stories. Litvin comes across as a man doing his duty for his country and never tries to claim credit for extraordinary deeds even if he did a few. Starting out as an anti tank gunner in a Airborne Division he was wounded early during the battle of Kursk. From there he was transfered to a transportation battalion and later he was sentenced to a penal battalion for desertion, something that wasn't really his fault. Then he got reassigned to his transport unit and got drafted from the rear units to the front replace combat losses. All through the story there are accounts of Litvin's personal experience and some very horrible incidents. Many readers will also find interesting how Litvin is fighting the infantryman' s war, since very few tanks are metioned at all. In fact with 2/3 of all Germans fighting on the Eastern Front and the majority of both Germans and Russians were infantry business, even if it wasn't the most glamorous part. Special mention should also go to Stuart Britton who completed the memoir by adding introductions and explanations to fit Litvin's experience into context and big picture. The fine team of Kansas University Press, headed by David Glantz (the current preemninent authority on the Eastern Front), did a tremendous job on this matter and these inroductions and explanations are extremely interesting. In many occasions Litvin would have been blissfully ignorant of what was really going on but as a reader it is good to be helped along by Britton. Very few mistakes are made in the text and the five b&W maps included are very good and detailed. There is also a 6-pages section of b&w photographs.

I read three books over Christmas break. They were Sniper on the Eastern Front by "Albrecht Wacker," 800 Days on the Eastern Front by Litvin, and A Writer at War by Vassily Grossman. A Writer at War was by far the BEST. Don't even bother with the other two.

This book is boring and there was only one particular scene that was vaguely interesting. Other than that the book is comprised of Litvin speaking about how he needs to fix his jeep, and how he fixed his jeep. VERY BORING GET "A WRITER AT WAR" INSTEAD!

As others have said, this is a very dull book - they're not lying, it's one of the most boring WWII autobiographies I've ever read and I've read a ton of them. I was desperately hoping to learn something of the "average" Soviet soldier's war, but this book delivers none of that. Instead, as others have said, you get page after monontonous page of how to fix a Jeep or truck, how many potatoes they got to eat, and riveting things like that. A more appropriate title would be "5 Days on the Eastern Front and 795 Days Near It."

This IS NOT A COMBAT SOLDIER'S NARRATIVE! This guy was a driver and a bit of a rear-area fellow. He rambles disjointedly about all sorts of boring things, then he'll throw something out like "and I was put on a patrol, we saw some Germans, and then I was shot in the hip and spent a month in the hospital." Then he'll go back to fifteen more pages about how bad roads were and what they had to do to find corn meal. It's actually kinda' weird.

And, throughout, Nickolai tries to portray the Soviet soldiers themselves as valiant crusaders - these guys were a bunch of choir boys. He does mention shooting a few German prisoners as if this was an uncommon occurance. Also the same about rape, as though it was a shocking thing and Soviet officers thought this a punishable offense. Granted, I have a jaded impression here because I had family in Potsdam when Germany surrendered and they tell a decidedly different story - as does almost every other book you'll ever read about the Russian soldier at war.

Get this one out of the library if you're having trouble sleeping, that's about the best I can say for it.

Here's the story behind "800 Days on the Eastern Front": Nikolai Litvin, Red Army veteran and author of the memoir, penned it in 1962 but never had it published due to tight media restrictions in the U.S.S.R. during the time period. Stuart Britton, editor and translator of the memoir, randomly discovered it in 2004 through a series of odd relationships and contacts with Russian acquaintances, spent a decent amount of time interviewing Litvin both through his contacts and electronically, and wrote a number of broader paragraphs outlining the overall situation on the Eastern Front (and which are dispersed throughout the memoir in the appropriate places) before having it published in 2007. The finished product, which is a mere 143 pages long (plus footnotes), ends up serving only as an overview of Litvin's experiences in the war, not as a detailed recollection of his entire service.

From start to finish, Litvin really keeps things rolling- but that's not really a good thing. Though the memoir reads smoothly enough, Litvin rarely stops to focus on idividual events and instead opts to cover the basics of everything. Just when something starts to get exciting he'll move right on to the next event, sometimes skipping weeks at a time. He sprinkles in enough specifics to keep it entertaining, including a number of entertaining stories from the time he spent as Colonel (and later General) Dzhandzhgava's chauffeur, but tells so little about other events, such as his wounding, that I was left not only wanting (a lot) more but also confused at times as to which of his experiences he considers to be significant and which were run-of-the-mill events.

Also slightly aggravating to the reader is Litvin's lack of focus on the actual battles he fought in. While he spent much of the war as a chauffeur, he was often forced into a combat role and even served a sentence in a penal battalion; unfortunately, as is the case with the rest of the text, he only includes a few specific stories about his time spent in combat. Other things Litvin touches on but are mostly left out include his relationships with other soldiers, details about Dzhandzhgava as a commanding officer and person, many smaller details such as what weapons he carried on a day to day basis, and he claims to have never witnessed any major atrocities or war crimes personally, which I find difficult to believe of anyone, even a chauffeur, who served on the Eastern Front for over two years. While Litvin recounts an instance of rape and even personally executed a handful of unarmed German prisoners, he largely portrays both the Russians and the Germans as well disciplined soldiers who only rarely committed such acts, and it is both Britton and the reader who are left to speculate on why Litvin does not elaborate on the frequency of such activities.

Ultimately, while the book is interesting, it suffers most from Britton never having personally met Litvin. I believe had he been able to do so he could have helped Litvin create a memoir twice as long and full of details. Because this never happened, however, Britton felt that it was not his place to modify anything Litvin had written and had it published as is. If only Litvin had access to an author willing to help him in 1962! Instead, we're left with this moderately interesting, albeit frustrating, memoir that fails to delve deeply into much of anything. I hesitantly recommend Litvin's memoir to fans of the war memoir genre or students of World War II; despite its lack of detail it is still worth reading.

I enjoyed this book and I feel it was well written. I was a bit angry to read at the end that he was sentenced to 4 years working in a mine just for a gun possession charge ... AFTER the war. Ridiculous. A perfect court case for jury nullification !