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The liberators: My life in the Soviet Army

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We all know what happens when far-right fanatics get into power, and we couldn't avoid this knowledge if we wanted to. However, what happens when the extreme left jumps in the saddle is rarely discussed in any detail, perhaps because 90% of university professors in America label themselves as being "liberal or very liberal" in their political opinions, and are generally sympathetic to the iconic figures of communism (Che, Castro, Marx, etc.) if not to communism itself. You could take a course on Nazi Germany at my undergraduate alma mater, actually several of them, but there were no courses on Stalin or the history of applied communism. Perhaps because of this sympathy, and because it failed so catastrophically everywhere it reared its ugly head, the topic is smothered in silence.

Viktor Suvorov, who grew up under communism, has never kept silent on what it was like to live in a society operating under Marxist-Leninist philosophy. THE "LIBERATORS" is one of the earliest works by the controversial Suvorov, a former member of the Soviet GRU who defected to Britain during the height of the cold war. Like his better-known books, INSIDE THE SOVIET ARMY and AQUARIUM, it should be mandatory reading for anyone still clinging to romantic fantasies about communism, or for that matter, any middle-class college student who thinks wearing a Che t-shirt makes an intelligent political statement.

"THE LIBERATORS" is a rambling but hugely entertaining account of Suvorov's entry into, and life inside, the Soviet military during the early-mid-1960s, beginning with the story of how he obtained acceptance to a military academy and ending with his part in the 1968 "liberation" of Czechoslovakia by Soviet tanks. Although the point of view shifts frequently to others, occasionally taking on a novelistic format, it always returns to Suvorov, a Ukranian farmboy whose brutally cynical sense of humor was forged by a system whose unofficial anthem was: "This is our hammer and this is our sickle, these are our Soviet emblems; reap if you like and sew if you must, whatever you do you'll get [expletive]!"

Suvorov revels in exposing the Soviet leviathan as lumbering, corrupt, unspeakably cruel and yet almost comically inefficient - a year's supply of anti-magnetic paint is used up whitewashing rocks because an admiral wants an improved-looking coastline; thousands of tons of chemical fertilizer are dumped into the Volga River (creating an environmental catastrophe) because the Party didn't make adequate preparations to store it; military exercises are run which leave the country defenseless; soldiers are sentenced to barbarous punishments for the slightest infractions; generals keep private harems and use military resources to construct fabulous dachas; incompetent drunks are promoted to important posts simply to get rid of them. Nothing works, the bureacracy is suffocating, one has to bribe officials to get them to do their jobs and secret police stooges are everywhere, ignoring corruption and crime but mercilessly punishing political unorthodoxy. By the time Suvorov was a young lieutenant, he understood the Soviet habit of substituting the word "hell" with "communism." So you can imagine his feelings when, in the summer of '68, the Soviet army was sent to Czechoslovakia to crush the burgeoning democratic movement there. Expecting to be greeted as liberators, the naive Soviets were pelted with eggs, rocks and rotten tomatoes, cursed roundly and told to stop doing to Eastern Europe what they had done to their own country. That, and seeing how much better off Czechoslovakia was than Russia, was so psychologically devastating to the liberators that the Soviet government sent most of them to the Chinese frontier for the rest of their military service, lest they start asking too many unfortunate questions.

THE "LIBERATORS" is a half-tragic, half-comic book, one which shows the amusing and yet painful coming-to-consciousness of a young man who wakes up one day to discover that he is not a liberator but an inmate, and his country a prison. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who ever wondered what life was like behind the Iron Curtain, or what it would have been like for us had the "world revolution" taken place.

For those who think that russians are fools: you have been fooled yourselves. This book gives an insight in the life of a soldier in Soviet Army AFTER the WWII, but if you want to know why WWII started, and the interiors of Soviet politics before 1941, I recommend the following books by him: "The Icebreaker" "The Last Republic" ""M" Day" and several others.

This is a facinating book on the Soviet Army, and a must read for military history buffs. While it is obviously out of date now, the stories are still hilarious and shows a facinating insight into how the Soviet Army worked, and most often, how it didn't work. It's amazing that the USSR survived as long as it did, which Suvorov's book details.

First of all, who is he? He's a 'defected' Russian spy witha real name of Vladimir Rezun, who worked in the GRU. He is a sort of a 'James Bond' who is writing about his career in the Russian army, military "spetsnaz"(Marine/Special Force), GRU, and about everything he got to know about USSR while working there.

In "The Liberator" he write about his life in the army, and about the army itself, about the 'behind the scene' part of all the major manuevers of Russian army, in which he took part. Also he writes about some of the "funny" incidents during Stalin's years.
Reading the book you really find out what it is to be a starting officer in the Russian/Soviet army. He shows that it is not easy, explaining everything in detail.
In Aquirium, he write about the "greatest" spy agency in the world, as the author beleives, the GRU,and his life there. He describes it in detail explaining its policies and how it works.
His operations as a spy, the security system are few of many things shown in the book.

In the "Icebreaker", "M-Day", "The Last Rebublic" he explained how and why the WW2 started, and most importantly, WHO REALY STARTED IT. He says STALIN and prooves it. Thousands of undeniable arguments are given in the book. And although Suvorov's views greatly differs the official version of the war, and he is not a professor, no one in the world was able to deny it. In fact, one other great historian, Radzinsky had quoted him in his book "Stalin. Life and death."
In "Suicide" he describes Hitler's suicidal attack on USSR. He anes again is very beleivable with his arguments. He shows that Hitler was not only a poor commander, but did not have a sloghtest idea how to fight a war. Also, the German army had no equipment to fight such a mighty foe, and was not at all prepared to occupy Russia. All this is discussed in the book.

In his books "Selection" and "Control" he tells us what Stalin wanted and how he wanted to acomplish it. A book about his 'special' infiltration teams, which is not only a James-Bond type of story, but also an incredibly interesting novel.

All of Suvorov's books are extremely interesting and informative, and what is most valuable in them is that they shows us the hidden truth.

The Liberators is a collection of Viktor Suvorov's shockingly revealing, and often hilarious, first-hand stories about the inside of the Soviet-army during the 1960's. The author brilliantly contrasts the outside world's perception of the Soviet Union with the pathetic reality: an internally weak nation run by a system of corruption, brutality and incompetence.

The author, Suvorov, entered the Soviet Army through unbelievable circumstances. The workers of chemical combines were ordered to transport huge quantities of fertilizer to make a record harvest for the glorious Ukraine SSR. However, the truck-drivers ordered to transport this fertilizer (one of whom being the author) were unable to meet the impossible 24 hour time quota! The men in charge of this operation had no idea how to deliver all this fertilizer, so they told the drivers to just get rid of it. The drivers dumped the chemical fertilizer into the river, creating a horrible yellow, stinking stain. Once returning to town after a day of dumping fertilizer into the Dnieper, Suvorov realized that he still had a ton and a half left in his tank. Without thinking, he dumped the cargo onto his private lot, completely destroying it. With the fear of starvation looming, Suvorov was forced to join the Tank School in Kiev, setting a series of tales of the sort into motion.

The stories in this book like the one I just shared are quite humourous, but they also expresses some important truths regarding the need for a freedom in favor of oppressive regimes. The Soviet Liberators, as they were called, Liberated nations that were better off than their own. While not the easiest read, The Liberators is one of the most interesting and in-depth analysis of the innards of the Soviet Army and system in general I have read. The historical insight gained is also highly worthwile. The ending is also quite profound.

I read most of his books.
New aspekt to russian history.Very interesting.
If intrested in Stalin read it.
You can't find more intresting books about Stalin and beging of USSR.

Viktor Suvorov, the nom de plume of a high-ranking Soviet military intelligence officer who defected to the West, has a great style and senses of humor and irony. All of these are shown in full force in this autobiographical tale of his entry into the Red Army officer corps as a tanker. A must-read for anyone into Cold War military history or anyone who's ever been in any military; many others will find it good, too. The title, which actually has "Liberators" in quotes, is a masterpiece of subtle irony, as Suvorov describes to you his growing understanding that he and his Red Army comrades were not Liberators of eastern Europe, but rather a conquering, occupying force. Well worth the reader's time.

This book is a masterpiece. the observations of a man caught up in the monster that was the Red Army. The lies, hypocrisy and the tedium of military life, and the ways in which he found a survival strategy. It has lessons for all caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare. It is tragic, and also at times, hilarious. The book details his life from a colective farm in the early 1960s to his role in the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. It also looks at how the higher ranks lived, and contrasts their lives with that of the common soldier. Highly readable, and very useful as a way to understand the Soviet mind,

Every time in history Russia was the black sheep of all important conflicts.Please read "The Icebreaker";"M day" and the "Last Republic"-by V. Suvorov.You'll discover things that are simply amazing,the true WW2 and why the red flag isn't on top of the Eiffel tower in Paris.Moscow had the power to influence the history of the 20 century like no other country and the history of the entire world for centuries from now on. You'll discover the real Red Army that was decades ahead in terms of weapons,discipline and eficiency compared to armie of Germany...what to say about France ,England and United States which were still in the '20 when WW2 started in 1939.France was defeated in 30 days,and maneged to cause 30.000 dead and 120.000 injured to the Wehrmacht(150.000 in total),while the french army had 120.000(England had also 35.000dead) dead and 250.000 injured(that's 405.000 ...2.5 times the german casulties).In Russia germany lost 10.2 million men(11.4 with her alies,Romania only had 600.000 ) and the Red Army lost about 20 million men [6 millions were lost in 1941,but if you read Suvorov's books you'll find the reason for the 1941 disaster.] ...so that's 1.8 the germen casualties compared to the 2.5 for the french.And still you can hear:the russians were stupids,unprepared and so on while the french army and all the western armies were like gold.Please think a little...

This book is by a Soviet Army Intelligence officer who was a reconnaisance commander during the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and details the idiocy and blunders of the soviet state. It is great reading if you wondered what it was like to live as a cog in the wheel, but yearned for more.