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Alexander Werth

Russia at War, 1941–1945: A History Paperback – March 14, 2017

by Alexander Werth (Author), Nicolas Werth (Foreword)

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In 1941, Russian-born British journalist Alexander Werth observed the unfolding of the Soviet-German conflict with his own eyes. What followed was the widely acclaimed book, Russia at War, first printed in 1964. At once a history of facts, a collection of interviews, and a document of the human condition, Russia at War is a stunning, modern classic that chronicles the savagery and struggles on Russian soil during the most incredible military conflict in modern history.

As a behind-the-scenes eyewitness to the pivotal, shattering events as they occurred, Werth chronicles with vivid detail the hardships of everyday citizens, massive military operations, and the political movements toward diplomacy as the world tried to reckon with what they had created. Despite its sheer historical scope, Werth tells the story of a country at war in startlingly human terms, drawing from his daily interviews and conversations with generals, soldiers, peasants, and other working class civilians. The result is a unique and expansive work with immeasurable breadth and depth, built on lucid and engaging prose, that captures every aspect of a terrible moment in human history.

Now newly updated with a foreword by Soviet historian Nicolas Werth, the son of Alexander Werth, this new edition of Russia at War continues to be indispensable World War II journalism and the definitive historical authority on the Soviet-German war.

Print length

1136 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Skyhorse
Publication date

March 14, 2017
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.7 x 8.25 inches
ISBN-10

1510716254
ISBN-13

978-1510716254
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Magnificent . . . . It fills a great void. . . . the best book we probably shall ever have in English on Russia at war."
—William Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

"This is not merely a history (although it happens to be an excellent one). It is not a collection of personal reminiscences (although it incorporates many). It is not a scholarly examination of Russia during the critical years 1941–1945 (although it puts under close analysis many events during that period). . . . [Werth's] Russian panorama has the depth and vividness of a Vereshchagin warscape. His descriptions of Nazi atrocities . . . are almost too terrible to read. . . . [Russia at War] overflows with the contradictory, the half-understood, the mysterious, the impossible to explain. . . . It bears comparison with William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as a work of scope and power. . . . One of the most important books yet written about WWII . . .superbly dramatic."
—Harrison E. Salisbury, The New York Times Book Review

"There is no book in any language with which to compare this monumental but exceedingly readable history of the Nazi-Soviet war . . . in savagery and hatred it was the biggest war in history . . . an engrossing and terrifying book."
—Life

"Engrossing history . . . spellbinding narrative."
—Newsweek

"Monumental and absorbing. . . . An epic work that will fascinate the ordinary reader."
—Saturday Review

"An illuminating book."
—Elbridge Colby

"Alexander Werth was one of the greatest war correspondents of the Second World War."
—Antony Beevor

About the Author

Alexander Werth (1901–1969) was a British journalist. He was a war correspondent in Russia for the Sunday Times and the Guardian and a commentator for the BBC from 1941 to 1948. He was one of the first outsiders allowed into Stalingrad after the battle and one of the few journalists to visit the Majdanek concentration camp. Russia at War was his best-known work.

Nicolas Werth, the son of Alexander Werth, is a historian of the Soviet Union and an internationally-known expert on communist studies. He lives in Paris, France.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Skyhorse (March 14, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1136 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1510716254
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1510716254
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.39 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.7 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,393,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,068 in Historical Study Reference (Books)
- #3,397 in Russian History (Books)
- #13,608 in World War II History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 335 ratings

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4.5 out of 5

335 global ratings

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Grizzly Adams

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 16, 2023

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This is the best book about "Russia at War." The author lived in the USSR throughout the war and had access from Russians at the top to the frontline troops. Werth brings alive the Russian war experience and his prose is easy to read. Barbarossa was good, but until you read Werth's account, you're missing a lot.

Helpful

A mix of history and propaganda

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 18, 2018

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Dunkirk. The Battle of Britain. Sink the Bismark. D-Day. Battle of the Bulge. In the USA, many of us have read of these Western Front battles. But, except for Stalingrad and Kursk, the Eastern Front’s German & Russian campaigns are unknown to most of us -- so this book intrigued me.

It turned out that the focus of this book was less on the battles and more on [1] the evolving Russian political decisions as their military fortunes ebbed and flowed and [2] the impact of the war on Russia’s cities and civilians.

The book explains the Russia invaded Eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in 1939 because Russia felt they needed a buffer between themselves and Germany. Perfectly reasonable – unless you happened to live in one of those invaded countries. Given that France and Britain went to war with Germany after they invaded Western Poland, what the ultimate fate of Western & Eastern Poland should be at war’s end remained a point of contention between Russia and Britain (and the USA) throughout the war.

Russia’s constant call for a 2nd front was another reoccurring subject in the book as Russia knew that without a 2nd front, they would continue to face nearly the full force of the German army by themselves. Fortunately, Russia had a (tenuous) peace with Japan so they did not have to fight a war in both their west and in their east simultaneously (unlike the USA).

As the Germans moved east, Russia used a scorched-earth policy to deny the Germans resources. While the Germans controlled their conquered territories, they shipped production and able-bodied civilians (for slave labor) back to Germany. And as the Russians began to recapture their lands, the Germans also used a scorched-earth policy. So the war devastated large areas of the Russian countryside (and its populace).

Stalingrad was covered well as it was the emotional turning point of the war for Russia (i.e., it was the first “we can win this war” awareness for them). But the book hardly mentioned Kursk -- the book essentially just said the Germans attacked but the attack stalled – and since the Germans had essentially burned themselves out due to heavy losses in men and material, the Russians then started their armies’ campaigns which began rolling the Germans back and ultimately sweeping into Rumania, Hungary and Germany itself.

Ever wonder why Russia today has problems with Chechen rebels? It turned out that Stalin had heard that the Chechens had fraternized with their Germans conquerors, so once the Russians recovered that territory, he had all of them shipped “to the east” (presumably, Siberia). The Tartars suffered a similar fate.

So why did I mentioned propaganda? Because some subjects were treated too kindly or even oddly. The book treated the Katyn massacre as “maybe the Russians did it, but the Germans probably did”. The halt of the Russian campaign outside Warsaw was argued as being a military necessity (rather than as a cold-blooded political decision to let the Germans eradicate Polish rebels). The rape of German women by Russian soldiers was explained away as being done by “sex-starved” soldiers (and also a possible “delight” for older women). The atom bomb was dropped “very largely in order to impress Russia with America’s great might” since “ending the war in Japan was incidental”. This book was printed in 1964 (25 years before the Berlin Wall came down), so perhaps some of my propaganda concerns were due the author’s lack of information rather than just parroting the Russian position – but they make the book misleading nonetheless.

Bottom line: More like “Life in Russia during the War” than “Russia at War”. Lots of information – but some topics were discussed often enough to almost seem repetitive.

94 people found this helpful

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Douglas Thorpe

Insightful and well documented military and political history of WW II in the east.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 21, 2020

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We have all read several books detailing the history of WW II in the west. Until reading this book, however, I had not understood how the war had progressed in Russia. This history, written by a Brit who was born in Leningrad and spent most of the war in Moscow as a reporter for the BBC, provides a comprehensive insight on both military and political history of Russian involvement in the war. Putting aside the extensive discussion of military events, very ably described and documented, the real value to me is the insight in to the implications of the war on European history. Although I would describe the author as a Russian apologist, at least to some degree, he had access to the inner workings of Russian government and society during, prior to, and perhaps most significantly after the war. The author devotes as substantial portion of his 1000+ page book to an insightful and well footnoted discussion of the end of war and post war negotiations leading up to the beginning of the Cold War. I very highly recommend this book for those interested in all of the ramifications of the war to Russia as well as those seeking a broader understanding of Russia’s relationship with the west during this pivotal historical period, I rate this book as one of the three best I have ever read about WW II.

7 people found this helpful

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George L. Cushing

An excellent and detailed summary of the events involving the USSR ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 25, 2018

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An excellent and detailed summary of the events involving the USSR leading up to and continuing throughout WW II, published in 1969, including political, social and military assessments of each significant event by Alexandra Werth, a British correspondent who grew up in Leningrad and spent those years covering the war in Russia. Much of what happened is described through references to contemporaneous local and national news media stories, as well as conversations or news conferences with military and political figures known to Mr. Werth, including Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. He also addresses the difficult “Polish” questions that arose during and after the war, including a discussion of the likely responsibility for the slaughter of Polish officers in 1940 or 1941 in the Katyn forest and the Russian role in the so called Warsaw Uprising in 1944. The book closes with an assessment of how the use of the atomic bomb against Japan led to the rapid disintegration of what had been a true military, political and economic alliance among Britain, the USA and Russia which eventually crushed the Nazi war machine and resulted in the unconditional surrender of the German government in 1945. I couldn’t put it down!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 2, 2020

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Written in 1965, the author is strait forward about the book being censored by both the Western and Soviet authorities of the time. The book is almost 1200 pages with the prologue and intro. 1st chapter is dull and dry, but picks up from there. Alexander Werth is very pro-Russian as he was born there. However, he presents plenty of material that is both fair and balanced from German, Russian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Italian sources. This is a fantastic book for anyone studying or casually reading about the "Eastern Front" in WWII. Two downfalls to the book: It should have been updated in 1995 or 2005. Also, for a part of the book, he refers to himself and the book in the 3rd person. Book-wise, it is printed on telephone book pages...ultra thin paper. So, be careful when turning the pages.

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Top reviews from other countries

Sparrow Kelly

A great read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 13, 2022

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A comprehensive and at times harrowing account of the German invasion of Russia from the point of view of a british journalist based in Moscow.

Nigel Featherstone

A different view.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 14, 2018

Verified Purchase

This is a very readable book. I found it very informative as a view of the Second World War from a Russian viewpoint. Written by someone who was there as it happened.

2 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Perhaps a bitter pill to some in the West but I think a proper understanding of WWII requires a reading of this book.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 7, 2017

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This is probably the most comprehensive, unbiased and insightful history of the Russian part of the war from 1941 to 1945. The author, a resident of Russia during the period, and correspondent of the British media missed little, and what was obscure was later clarified as access to documents and sources became possible. This book was originally published in 1965, the author realizing that it would take time for journalism to be better written as history. Moreover, it took the author's son to polish some of the story as sources became even more accessible after the fall of the Soviet system. But this is not an easy read. The Soviet story is not sweetness and light - even the courage and resilience of the ordinary people probably cannot be measured in terms that Westerners could really understand.
Understanding is further complicated by the built-in hate of the Soviet party and governance (communist) system, particularly as it revealed itself later in the Cold War. There is no question about it, the Russian people and soldiers spilled more blood and suffered more than the Western armies - and longer - and their claim to have played a proportionately larger role as it was their blood, their land and their towns and villages who suffered and their land and and towns that were destroyed, even though the blitz in Britain also wrecked a large part of Southern England, specifically London. Their distrust of soldiers going into battle (if they are going the wrong way, shoot them) is also not in line with our human values, although were men shot for cowardice in WWI when "shell shock" or "battle fatigue" - or just plain fear syndromes were not well understood. Neither did the Russians and their Asian fighters show any mercy to Germans - and that is understandable.

There were many heroes in that war with a disproportionate number in Russia. Although it was unreasonable, one can understand why Russians wanted a Second Front sooner than possible.

2 people found this helpful

Neal Ames

The Perfect Overview of Russia during WWII

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on December 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

Most people in the west are bought up with only an awareness of our role in the Second World War. This book fills in the missing gap and shows the impact on Russia of the German invasion. The impact of the war on their people and their culture is highlighted in this great book and I feel as though I now have a full understanding of the whole picture. A great read.

Jeremy Noble

An astonishing personal and scholarly account

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on August 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

I found this book to be most helpful in understanding current Russian points of view. It describes the scale of the undertaking of the great patriotic war by the Russian people. For myself it helped to explain the otherwise bewildering sense of national resentment that continues through to this day. An epic.

One person found this helpful

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