Customer Reviews

The winter war: Russia against Finland (Ballantine's illustrated history of the violent century)

5 star:		(2)
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This is a very difficult book to find and I kick myself that I didn't keep my copy. The quantity and quality of the photography and maps in this book are the best of any book I've seen covering this heroic conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union. Very detailed but could have had more personal accounts to bring conflict down to the "average Joe" level. Great Book!

I've read a Spanish edition of this hard to find book.

This is a very interesting book covering the struggle for liberty Finnish people had to fight against the Soviet rolling machine.

A lot of maps and photos help a lot to show the hard conditions in which this war took place. It's amazing to see how heavy outnumbered but very valiant troops resisted and defeated time after time overwhelming enemy forces. Sadly, Finland was finally defeated, but its heroic resistance let them go on existing as a free and independent country. Was it worth? Well, they're still there while the Soviet Union has gone forever.

I missed some more info about orders of battle and foreign voluntary units participation in the Winter War.

I was extremely impressed with this book. It is very detailed and the illustrations of weapons and the detailed maps really added to the text. An absolutely fascinating look at what determined, resourceful people can accomplish in defense of freedom. I would have liked a little more info and/or personal anecdotes from both sides but Russian narratives are no doubt hard to come by. Besides, it takes no great imagination to feel what the poor Russian soldiers went through as they were sent to the slaughter by their idiotic leaders-the tale of fighting men everywhere. If you are looking for a book on the Finnish war, look no further. This is a great example.

Concise, to the point, well summarized, this is a great introduction to the Winter War. Best collection of B&W photos of any book I've read on the Winter War, Great Maps - easy to follow and well-placed in the book. Obviously it's not to the same level of detail as Allen Chew, William Trotter or Robert Edward's books but it's a very well written summary. Funnily enough, it also has odd bits and pieces of information that I hadn't picked up in other books on the Winter War which makes it worthwhile buying all on it's own.

It's easy to buy a 2nd hand copy of this via Amazon - if the Winter War interestes you, it's certainly worth paying a few bucks for this book.

This was written by a history professor, and you can tell. It is about as dry as can be, coldly intellectual. I know it must be accurate, and it is thoroughly researched, but it certainly doesn't "come alive". It's like your usual dry history textbook. If you want just facts, you get them here. If you want interesting reading, find another book! He could have quoted eye witnesses to help interest level - I'm sure there are still a lot of them who would share their perspectives. There is no clue how people reacted or how it changed their daily lives. It's about armies and battles but nothing about real people. History doesn't have to be so dull!