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об истории серьезно

историческая литература

The German invasion of Russia was Hitler&apos;s biggest gamble in his quest for &apos;Lebensraum&apos; in the East – and it was at Stalingrad that his gamble failed. Stalingrad is a comprehensive history of the greatest battle of World War II, a defining moment in the struggle on the Eastern Front, which has been called the Verdun of World War II. From an About.Com review of the illustrated print edition: «Anthony Beevor&apos;s Stalingrad is wholly worthy of its fame. Fortunately for publishers, there are many ways to write history and Stephen Walsh&apos;s account of Stalingrad offers a strong alternative: a military history. Walsh may cover the same ground … but his is a narrative of logistics and tactical planning, an account of where troops moved and fought, why plans were conceived and what they meant militarily. There&apos;s a large overlap between Beevor and Walsh – both include the same basic detail – but Beevor&apos;s prose is more personal … while Walsh&apos;s text considers the limits of German national power and the nature of Vernichtungschlacht warfare. Where Beevor discusses the difficulty of providing exact figures Walsh just gives them and where Beevor&apos;s writing is ceaselessly gripping Walsh is more sedate, educational and discursive. In short, these books are aimed at different audiences: anyone who likes reading will enjoy Beevor, but someone who wants the military specifics and contexts will benefit more from Walsh. Another bonus is a chapter on Army Group A and their campaign in the Caucasus, an event presumably omitted from Beevor&apos;s Stalingrad on grounds of relevance, but one which helps place the siege on context. Walsh&apos;s book is an excellent military history, but Beevor&apos;s is better suited to a broader audience: in terms of text, neither is more wrong nor right than the other, but Walsh feels like a documentary and Beevor like a feature film. It might seem unfair to constantly compare The Infernal Cauldron to Stalingrad, but I urge everyone who reads one to study the other too. No one should miss out on Beevor&apos;s style and treatment of both history and humanity, while The Infernal Cauldron is a superb, maybe even essential, companion to Stalingrad.»

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Stalingrad 1942-1943 (Unabridged)

The conflict on the Eastern Front in World War II was colossal in both scale and intensity, as the two infamous dictators of the twentieth century – Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin – vied for supremacy in Eastern Europe. On 22 June 1941 it was Hitler&apos;s fateful decision to launch the largest invasion ever seen, Operation Barbarossa, when 138 German divisions attacked the Soviet Union. Four years later, some two million German and eleven million Russian soldiers had ben killed in the course of their struggle, and names like Stalingrad and Kursk had been burnt into the world&apos;s consciousness. The Eastern Front is a detailed account of this epic clash, the greatest continuous land battle in history. The book explores in detail the state of the German and Soviet armies in 1941, and the planning and preparation of both sides for the German attack. Campaigns covered include Operation Barbarossa, the rapid German advance on Moscow and the first Soviet winter offensive in 1941-42. The race for the Caucasian oilfields in Operation Blue, as the 1942 German campaign was known, is also described, as is the fight for Stalingrad and the infamous destruction of the German Sixth Army, the Soviet success in early 1943, and the resultant German counter at Kharkov. The book details Hitler&apos;s last major offensive in the summer of 1943 that led to the world&apos;s largest tank battle at Kursk, and the significant Soviet victories that followed, with Operation Bagration in 1944 capturing huge numbers of German prisoners. Finally, the book looks at the Soviet advance onto German soil, the capture of Berlin itself and the subsequent suicide of Adolf Hitler as shells rained on his bunker. Written by three leading military historians, the Eastern Front is a superb history of the cataclysmic struggle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.