Eastern Front: The Unpublished Photographs 1941-1945 [Hardcover]

Will Fowler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2001

After securing the rights to this amazing Ukrainian state photo archive, the author traveled to Kiev with a translator, a bodyguard and several thousand used American dollar bills, the negotiated cost for the collection. According to Fowler, the risk of carrying that kind of cash - or 15 years' salary to the average Kiev worker - through a city with a staggering crime rate was well worth it. This photographic record of the war on the Eastern Front is composed entirely of imagery taken and captioned by Red Army photographers. None of the images have previously been seen in the West. The result, which offers the perspectives of Soviet soldiers, as well as those of ordinary men, women and children, is a visually stunning account covering every aspect of one of history's bloodiest chapters and the epic battles waged in Stalingrad, Kursk, Kharkov, and Leningrad. Almost 30 million people died during the course of the four years of conflict during World War II. In the aftermath, the whole of Poland, European Russia, and Germany lay in ruins as a result of the fighting.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Zenith Press (September 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760311161
• ISBN-13: 978-0760311165
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 9.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,104,845 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Deserves a different title, January 11, 2002

By 

Rebecca Reed Alvear (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eastern Front: The Unpublished Photographs 1941-1945 (Hardcover)

I would have called this book " Unpublished Photographs of the Eastern Front form the Soviet Propaganda Machine ". The vast majority of the pictures are from the Soviet view, with hardly any photos of Wehrmacht troops. I ordered this hoping to have more pictures of German equipment as I am an avid modeller. I was disappointed to see instead pictures of smiling partisans, smiling Russian soldiers, staged " attacks ", etc. If you want pictures of the Soviet side, then get this book, although it has few pictures of equipment for those so interested.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than First Meets the Eye, July 7, 2003

By 

Emil L. Posey (Huntsville, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eastern Front: The Unpublished Photographs 1941-1945 (Hardcover)

Every now and then a book comes along that is unheralded and, if advertised at all, is done so only in esoteric publications. This is just such a book. It is a publishing diamond in the rough.

As the title indicates, this is a collection of photos "previously unpublished, from a former Soviet archive." While I'm no expert, I have been through many books and articles about the Eastern Front, and I don't recall seeing any of these before. Some photos appear to have been staged (not that there's anything wrong with that), but most appear to have been spontaneous. The photos span the entire Front during the whole of the war, almost entirely at the tactical level.

While the depth and breadth of the collection is impressive, the book's greatest strength lies in the captions that accompany each photograph. These are comprehensive, interesting and surprisingly full of detailed nomenclature of Soviet and German aircraft, weapons, vehicles and equipage. Some of the captions appear to be literal translations from Russian, and the resulting odd phraseology lends an unexpected authenticity.

The accompanying text provides a concise, well written, summary-level description of the course of the Russo-German war that puts the photos in each section into context. There are no maps, orders of battle, or other accouterments of military histories, but the text hangs together well and provides an excellent primer on this titanic struggle. Even for the more seasoned reader, insights abound that I have not seen in other such collections, such as the roll of Ultra and the Lucy spy network in Soviet preparations to meet the Wehrmacht's massive offensive towards Kursk in 1943, or the interwoven statistics throughout the book that quantify manpower and weaponry and thereby provide some sense of the opposing forces' capabilities.

This is not the definitive collection of photos, but it fits well with other albums and thus provides a valuable addition to one's WWII library. Whether used as a coffee table book or for more serious perusal, it will provide hours of enjoyable reading. Highly recommended.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fine photo book., March 17, 2003

By 

K. Anderson (Surrey, UK.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eastern Front: The Unpublished Photographs 1941-1945 (Hardcover)

Eastern Front by Will Fowler.

This is by far the best photo album dealing with the Eastern Front, from the Russian side.

The pictures and text are well laid out. The text in formative, the pictures interesting and varied. Taken in their totality they give a good impression of what it must have been like, seen from this distance.

I should point out that I also have a large number of photo album type books of the war from the German side and the percentage of photos in this book which appear to be propaganda photos is no higher then in similar books on the German forces, or the western allies.

Best collection of photos, from the Russian side, published so far. Now the archives have been open for a few years, with luck, there will be more books of a similar type from the Russian view.

All the best,
Kip.