Just finished this book and couldn't put it down over the last week or so. Very absorbing. Not really GPW, but the insights into dedovshchina are eye-opening and I imagine GPW troops might have gone through something very similar.

_________________
Semyon Yakovlevich Sorókin
Guardsman
2nd Guards Rifle Division

"The guts of the German army have been largely torn out by Russian valour and generalship." - Winston Churchill, speech to Parliament 1944

Comrade,

As you may or may not know, my main interest these days is the 50 years of world peace, although I also have an ever growing collection of gear from the First Century of Tsar Putin's rule including many many items from the 1st and 2nd Chechen War.

This book by all accounts is absolutely cracking and I look forward to some kind person buying it for me for Christmas, along with a winter weight set of OMON cammoflage to wear while reading it

BTW, this book is about the 1st Chechen War, as such I would suggest it probably has a lot in common with the first half of the GPW, with chaos and poor command ruling the battlefield together with staggering losses from an army who considered themselves invincible....

Comrade, the book is mostly the 1st Chechen War but there also some chapters in the 2nd war too as he returns as a contract volunteer and then after the war as a journalist.

_________________
Semyon Yakovlevich Sorókin
Guardsman
2nd Guards Rifle Division

"The guts of the German army have been largely torn out by Russian valour and generalship." - Winston Churchill, speech to Parliament 1944

Sounds excellent! I shall look forward to something to read over Christmas while I am "working"

_________________
"Lenin left us a great legacy, and we have f*cked it up." I.V. Stalin, June 29, 1941

I agree Semyon, I've only read about 90 pages of it so far, but already I strongly believe that this is an essential read for anyone interested in 20th and 21st century Russian military history.

_________________
Blood for blood! Death for death! Never surrender!

I'm going to wait for the paperback on this one...so many books, so little time.
On the book front, I see that Pen and Sword have a book of recollections of the Siege of Leningrad:
http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/?product_id=1502
which may be worth a look.

_________________
Radu Raduvich Himea
Yefreytor
Captain's Orderly

http://www.2ndguards.com/index.html


DEATHSPOON