The Greatest Battle: Stalin, Hitler, and the Desperate Struggle for Moscow That Changed the Course of World War II

by Andrew Nagorski

The battle for Moscow was the biggest battle of World War II -- the biggest battle of all time. And yet it is far less known than Stalingrad, which involved about half the number of troops. From the time Hitler launched his assault on Moscow on September 30, 1941, to April 20, 1942, seven million troops were engaged in this titanic struggle. The combined losses of both sides -- those killed, taken prisoner or severely wounded -- were 2.5 million, of which nearly 2 million were on the Soviet side. But the Soviet capital narrowly survived, and for the first time the German "Blitzkrieg" ended in failure. This shattered Hitler's dream of a swift victory over the Soviet Union and radically changed the course of the war.The full story of this epic battle has never been told because it undermines the sanitized Soviet accounts of the war, which portray Stalin as a military genius and his people as heroically united against the German invader. Stalin's blunders, incompetence and brutality made it possible for German troops to approach the outskirts of Moscow. This triggered panic in the city -- with looting, strikes and outbreaks of previously unimaginable violence. About half the city's population fled. But Hitler's blunders would soon loom even larger: sending his troops to attack the Soviet Union without winter uniforms, insisting on an immediate German reign of terror and refusing to heed his generals' pleas that he allow them to attack Moscow as quickly as possible. In the end, Hitler's mistakes trumped Stalin's mistakes.

Drawing on recently declassified documents from Soviet archives, including files of the dreaded NKVD; on accounts of survivors and of children of top Soviet military and government officials; and on reports of Western diplomats and correspondents, "The Greatest Battle" finally illuminates the full story of a clash between two systems based on sheer terror and relentless slaughter.

Even as Moscow's fate hung in the balance, the United States and Britain were discovering how wily a partner Stalin would turn out to be in the fight against Hitler -- and how eager he was to push his demands for a postwar empire in Eastern Europe. In addition to chronicling the bloodshed, Andrew Nagorski takes the reader behind the scenes of the early negotiations between Hitler and Stalin, and then between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.

This is a remarkable addition to the history of World War II.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Russia, War, Military Fiction, Audiobook

366 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

From back cover:
Andrew Nagorski, award-winning journalist, is vice president and director of public policy at the EastWest Institute, a New York-based international affairs think tank. During a long career at Newsweek, he served as the magazine's bureau chief in Hong Kong, Moscow, Rome, Bonn, Warsaw, and Berlin. He lives in Pelham Manor, New York.

Reviews

[Geevee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a solid and readable book suited to the general reader, myself included. The author provides a good outline of the build up to the German invasion and then the campaign leading to Moscow's edges mixed with anecdotes and quotes from the political leaderships, commanders, troops and civilians.

My reasoning for three stars is that whilst book is readable and informative Moscow in terms of battle joined (in its specific sense of the German movement and attacks to reach and capture the capital) do not feature until near mid-way through the book. I'd anticipated the book to be about the Battle for Moscow rather than a wider scoped battle for Moscow that encompassed the build-up to invasion, delays to planned dates, the start of the operation and then the key battles and movements leading to the main event.

That said whilst this was my loss, it is a good book that ably tells that wider story highlighting the strategic mistakes on both sides, including the leaders' approaches and behaviours; as well as the treatment of troops and civilians by both sides, preparedness for winter, wider munitions supply, morale and censorship and life as a soldier.

All in all a worthwhile read that for seasoned Eastern front students will offer the author's views and interpretations with good maps and figures. It should help the new or less experienced reader find areas of interest, in this the largest battle between two armies in history, that decided Germany's fate and consigned millions to unmarked graves in the forests and fields that surround Moscow's western approaches.

[Bogdan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was a brilliant piece of history and had all the points that I want when reading a book like this!!
If you`re interested in the personal drama of a lot of people from the World war II period, then this is for you. Especially the ones of the Soviet state, from the unknown civilians to some high ranking bureaucrats of even russian generals.
The german are also present, but this peculiar book is more about the situation in and at the outskirts of Moscow when the german war machine was at it`s doors.
This book had some new (for me) tremendous facts and events, but also a lot of unforgettable and unjustified crimes from the both sides that makes you instantaneously hate the whole futility of the war.
There are also the stories with facts and events of some of foreign ambassadors in Moscow and a lot of useful information about the communist regime and it`s actions on that period of time.

Overall, and keeping it short, an amazing read!

Ps: I recommend it also to those that in these time of Covid 19 are feeling that the rules of quarantine imposed by the various states are too harsh (yea, right!)or that we`re living the end of the World!!!

No, guys! The Second WORLD WAR was the real End of the World and a true Hell on Earth!!!

[Perry Whitford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally ignored by prosperity, certainly considered secondary to Stalingrad when remembering the German clashes with Russia during Operation Barbarossa, in his introduction Nagorski calls the battle for Moscow "arguably the most important battle of WWII and inarguably the largest battle between two armies of all time" (7 million fought, up to 2.5 killed or injured).

Certainly the incredible cost of human life that resulted from one madman's attempt to conquer a continent and another sociopath's attempt to prevent it are near impossible to comprehend. But the sheer folly and utter disregard for human life displayed by those leaders is just as difficult to understand.

It happened though, and Nagorski makes it plain that the incredible carnage was wholly due to the "huge miscalculations ... and unremitting ruthlessness" of Hitler and Stalin.

Stalin's major mistakes were, firstly, complete unpreparedness for the Nazi invasion in June 1941, which Nagorski finds all the sources he can to suggest a genuine belief that Hitler would not attack him due to their pact - or at least not this early - despite his constant reference to Russia as merely Lebensraum, and the highly visible movement of German troops to the border.

Secondly he lists the typically paranoid purge of the Red Army just before war, where 44K officers were shot or sent to Siberia, leaving them without experienced leadership. Yep, they really did that kind of thing in Russia back then.

Hitler's mistakes were in launching Operation Barbarossa in the first place before the war in the West was won, which left his army fighting on two fronts at the same time. Then, having made that initial strategic error, he delayed its start until June instead of May as originally planned so that, like Napoleon before him, his troops were caught up in the inhospitable Russian winter before they had a chance to take Moscow.

Maybe the battle for Moscow has never resonated as much as the one in Stalingrad precisely because it was for Moscow, not in Moscow. The Nazis came to within about twenty miles of the capitol, but there was never a pitched battle inside the city.

Because of that and due to the many reasons why Red Army soldiers were subsequently reluctant to talk about their experiences, Nagorski leaves a lot of gaps with regards the actual fighting.

Instead he provides fleeting images of mass graves, fields covered in combinations of bodies, snow and rivers of blood, horrendous truths about the tactics used by both leaders on their own troops, such as the NKGB-managed "blocking units", which stood behind the Red Army shooting deserters, and the hardships suffered by The German rank and file left to freeze in the tundra by a delusional Fuhrer without adequate footwear or winter coats.

In want of an actual battle then, Nagorski concentrates on proving his point that Hitler and Stalin between them blundered their way into disaster. Hitler paid the ultimate cost, whilst Stalin so nearly did.

In a pivotal section of the book, he throws light upon the events of October 16th 1941, a day of chaos in Moscow where there was no visible leadership and amidst a mass exodus the remaining Moscovites looted and plundered the city, decrying the regime.

I am not disagreeing with the author's hypothesis which lays the blame at two of history's biggest monsters, and he has written a fluid, informative book to back it up, despite the limited source material due to Soviet censorship.

On a side note, I read this at the same time as a book about the Battle of New York, just one hundred and fifty years before, where the protagonists were positively gentlemanly in comparison.

[Martin Koenigsberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Very enjoyable book, and an important one. I have to say this one is very let down by its cover, which is poorly art-directed. Looks like a pot-boiler- is actually a real strong work of history. Nagorski sets out to tell the story of the Battle of Moscow, even the whole first year of the Russian Front Blitzkrieg, not so much via the tactical or strategic story, although those are here, but rather through the human costs of the campaign, and the political machinations, both insie and outside Russia. It's really the tale of how the Russian overcame Hitler, the Heer, a new style of warfare, the weather, their own incompetence, and the Massive figure of Stalin... to eventual triumph. Most fascinating for the Western reader may be the efforts seen in the book by the Western Allies to assist/exploit their new Russian co-belligerent. Nagorski follows the various ambassadors and other legates in the rush to help a new ally. In all, many interesting characters emerge to make the story ring true. This is book with many mature themes, but is written in a way that will work for junior readers. Gamers/Modellers/Military enthusiasts will find this informative, but not required reading. A good book for those who seldom read about conflict.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid, but a bit rambling and anecdotal. Nagorski continuously compares shortcomings of Hitler and Stalin -- their refusal to listen to their generals, or listen to anything they didn't want to hear; their callous indifference to how many of their own troops were lost to achieve their ends; their unrealistic and capricious plans and goals. These frequent comparisons sidetracked the book at times but were, thankfully, fairly interesting.

Written in two directions, as it were, Nagorski draws from a wealth of material and interviews to portray people at the very top (Hitler, Stalin, Zhukov, Guderian, etc.) as well as from the common ranks and the civilian population. Again, this was usually quite interesting but at times I felt he got a little carried away with someone's personal story or war recollections, which made the book lose momentum.

But the major problem for me in listening to this book was that I had difficulty keeping track of what, exactly, was going on in terms of the battle's timing, location, and strategy. I readily concede that this may primarily be a problem with listening rather than reading the book. Some maps and the ability to flip back a few pages would no doubt have helped.

Still, it seemed to me that the book was less about the battle than its two major figures of the subtitle, Hitler and Stalin. It also seemed that claiming the battle was the "greatest" was not that productive, a bit of marketing overreach. Great, undoubtedly. THE Greatest? No one can really say, so why say it?

[Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Putin and his KGB cronies are trying to replicate the Soviet Empire through military action taken against weak neighbors while describing USSRs 1989 collapse as a great moral tragedy.
This marvelous book sheds light on what another Russian tyrant did in 1941 to save his skin: throw any and all conscripted soldiers at the invaders. Stalin lost 1.7 MILLION men in this one battle but Moscow was saved so that he could continue to be reponsible for the deaths of 25 MILLION of his Soviet countrymen.
This book is masterful in its retelling of the conditions in the Soviet Union under the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact between Hitler and Stalin. The great Stalinist purges of the late 1930s decimated the officer class of the Soviet military, and the Pact gave old Joe time to build it back up,(it was that weak military that raped Poland in 1940). It is ironic that after Barbarossa's sweep through Western Russia that bagged 2,000 aircraft, captured two million soldiers and their war materiel, and set up the delayed move on Moscow, the conscripts fed to Wehrmacht cannon were unarmed unless equipped with captured POLISH rifles!

[John Setear · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you know very little about World War II, then this book would be a nice introduction to a crucial battle on the most important front. But if you know the outlines of the conflict and the battle, then I do not recommend the book. There are some nice interviews with survivors, and a chapter on a one-day panic in Moscow of which I had not heard, but otherwise, this was very familiar ground. And it does only a passable job of analyzing why the Germans failed to take Moscow.

[Eric Leeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of the Soviet Union contains great mysteries as many events that did not fall into their desired view was erased as thoroughly as possible by any means necessary. An incredible story of the struggles throughout the Eastern Front this book was fascinating, thrilling, informative and engaging. I love to learn new things concerning World War II and I did learn much while reading this book.

Much can be learned from this and I would recommend it to anyone interested in History.

[Bill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Completely biased and from what I could suffer through factually incorrect. Stalin's essay, or Marxism and the National Question was written in 1913 not 1901 as Nagorski claims. It was also Stalin's second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva who melted his heart of stone not his first Kato Svanidze. If you're going to write biased hogwash get your facts right.

[Sacha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bon livre sur une bataille assez méconnue mais néanmoins importante, la bataille de Moscou. Une bataille quasiment décisive, qui, a permis au peuple de l'Union Soviétique de s'unir face à l'Allemagne nazie.
Le livre explique bien les étapes de la bataille, les purges et autres événements. Malgré cela, il y a trop d'anecdotes, parfois intéressantes, parfois inintéressantes. C'est dommage. Malgré cela, il faut découvrir la bataille de Moscou et comprendre pourquoi elle est si méconnue.

[Al Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book on the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the author does a very interesting job in telling the story, sometimes he diverts into human interest stories such as the removal of Lenin’s body but it is always interesting and compelling, I’ve read dozens of WW2 books but this was still a fresh enough read, would definitely recommend.

[Guilherme Amorim · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Greatest Battle" gives a journalistic overview of the fight for Moscow, alternating the big picture with first person accounts, some of them from interviews with veterans. The book is not military history, more of an introduction to the Eastern front.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading a biography on Stalin last year I wanted to learn more about the Soviets during World War Two. So when I found this book on the Battle of Moscow I was excited. In the opening of the book the author made it clear that while there is some distant historical imagination in the Russian public memory of the Battle of Moscow, very few people know the exact details and actual facts beyond the sanitized Soviet account. The book’s chief point is to explore the battle historically with data outside the official version according to Stalin and the Soviet Union. The author does this by utilizing other resources such as interviews of survivors, newly revealed government source materials, journals and Western news reporter’s personal account. I must say I enjoyed the book and the effort the author put into this book.
I don’t want to rehearse the whole book but the book explored both Hitler and Stalin’s leadership in the conflict. In the first chapter the author described the similarities between both dictators’ leadership style and personality. Both men distrusted one another which shouldn’t come as a surprise since they did not even trusted those men around them. It is surprising that both came to a mutual agreement not to attack each other but secretly they both knew that war between one another was inevitable. Their agreement of neutrality towards one another was to buy time for the upcoming war and unfortunately it was a game that the Soviets were beaten in and the Germans had the advantage of in the beginning.
The book reveals just how close the Nazis were to Moscow. The popular Russian narrative that the Russians faced the Germans fearlessly wasn’t always true. At one point the people in Moscow when it seems inevitable that Moscow would fall to the Germans even rioted, fled and was ready to commit treason such as surrendering and burning Marxists documents. Police officers were nowhere to be seen and looting were rampant. Due to some poor strategy on the part of Hitler the German Army focused elsewhere in the Eastern front rather than completing their march towards Moscow. This act saved Russia and the Russians soon started pushing the Germans back.
I think the author argued his point quite successfully that the leadership of both Stalin and Hitler raised the costs of casualties on their own respective side, sometimes unnecessarily so. Both men had the misfortune of having their arrogance blinded them; they even thought they knew better than their generals and think of themselves as great strategists but who were often in error and trivial. But the costs in terms of lives and resources were terrible as the personal accounts throughout the book can attest.
Some of the more intriguing part of the book for me include the discussion of Russian covert actions ranging from the bizarre to the heroic. I also learned from this book of the origin of the Marines guarding American Embassies began when American diplomats were concerned about security in which Russian spies and secret agents were always surrounding American diplomats and where they were staying. But the majority of the book was sadder to read. The story of incredible suffering on both sides was not easy to read. The stories of Russian military units and the NKVD (predecessors to the Russian intelligence and security agency KGB) killing Russian soldiers who fled was rather disheartening to read. Even worst were the stories of how Stalin’s policies towards Russians soldiers captured by the Germans was to treat them as traitors. Even soldiers who were caught for a brief time and escaped were interrogated and executed as spies. Of course the treatment of enemies’ prisoner of war wasn’t going to be more humane.

[Randhir · Rating 4 out of 5]

If one was looking for a detailed description of the defining battle of 'Operation Barbarossa,' he would be disappointed. The Battle for Moscow is described with some good maps but the book is much more than that. It goes into detail into the strategy for the whole operation and into the character and action of the people involved, from the leaders to the soldiers and civilians. At times it's a litany of horrors perpetrated one after another. I suppose nothing less was expected when two of the greatest human monsters of history squared of against one another. There were nearly seven million people involved with two and a half million becoming casualties. The statistics beggar the imagination. Both Stalin and Hitler were mass killers. Stalin perhaps worse of the two. He was perhaps more merciless with his people than the enemy, sending his soldiers into relentless mass attacks regardless of casualties. It showed. Russian casualties were nearly four times German. Defeat and surrender were not acceptable. Death awaited those who faltered. The climate itself was pitiless with temperatures falling to minus 30 and more. Hitler's intransigence and insensitivity ensured that his soldiers fought in summer clothing. More of them died because of weather than enemy action. He also made strategic mistakes by firstly, starting his offensive a month late and then against the advice of his generals changing the axis of attack southward. The result was that it was a near run thing. By the time rains and winter set in, German troops were barely 25 kms from Moscow and were held by fresh Siberian divisions diverted from the East, based on the spy Richard Sorge's inputs that Japan would not attack Mongolia. What this reviewer finds depressing is how mankind seems to throw up leaders with little regard to their well being, driven only by a mad desire for power. Despite numerous blunders, Stalin seemed to exercise a mesmerising effect on his people. They accepted his ruthless pogroms and genocides with nary a protest. No other battle in history compares with the Battle of Moscow in the scope and the people involved. If Hitler had won the trajectory of History may have changed. Read the book, despite its occasional pedantic style. You will pray that we never face such instances ever again

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The basic outline of Nagorski's story is familiar if you've read a general history of World War II: the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the collapse of the Red Army, the calamitous misjudgments on both sides, the desperate fight for the Soviet capital. Nagorski uncovered details of the struggle that are new to most Western readers and a departure from the official Soviet story of an unwaveringly stalwart defense; in fact, as the Germans arrived on the city's outskirts, the capital fell into chaos with some residents openly preparing to greet the invaders. The Greatest Battle is especially strong in showing the scenes that unfolded on the streets of Moscow as well as in the Kremlin as Stalin tried to decide whether to flee the city or stay and lead its defense. Nagorski also carefully creates the political context for the fighting: Stalin's reign of terror against internal opponents, real or imagined, that continued even as the Germans drove toward the capital. Nagorski is not so strong in telling the German side of the story, though he vividly relates Hitler's policy of terror and subjugation and how it was carried into practice by his conquering army.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a student of military history, I keep finding out things I didn't know. For WW2, I've had an American's typical understanding that focuses on the Western Front (and Pacific Theater), knowing only vaguely about the cataclysm occurring on the Eastern Front. This book focuses on the central part of that conflict, Nazi Germany's push towards the heart of the Soviet Union. It covers the battle, but spends more time on the broader political and social history of that time. Hitler's boldness...and mistakes, Stalin's ineptness...but ultimate victory through ruthlessness and enormous resources. The panic & anarchy during the very near collapse of Moscow (and perhaps the Soviet Union, and then the war?) is a story that isn't well known.

That the Soviet people endured such paranoid & self-destructive government that placed no value on their well-being or LIFE...then fought for that government against an even greater(?) evil is mind-boggling. Nothing like it in the west compares.

Digital audiobook from public library.

[Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This history book covers the largest battle of all time, the battle for Moscow in the fall and winter of 1941-42. This book examines the battle primarily from the perspective of the political leadership of the Allies and the Axis powers. It provides scant details concerning the strategy and tactics of the military campaign to capture or defend Moscow. It is a very readable history of the actions and reactions in the major world capitals to the events taking place during this battle. It is not a sanitized version of events as the Soviets tried to present during the post-war period. Stalin’s blunders, ordinary Russia civilians and soldiers’ thoughts and actions are all discussed. First hand descriptions based upon contemporaneous materials provide insightful information about how events were shaped and considered at that time. It is a very interesting look inside the thoughts and actions taken by the political leaders in Russia, Germany, England, American and Japan as this titanic struggle outside Moscow took place.

[Vishank · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest work of history about World War II. It unfolds the various secrets and real life incidents that speaks to itself about the two peculiar dictators of all time and their military leadership. Its a collection of various interviews of people who were involved or seen this one of the biggest disastrous battle of Moscow. Author has compiled it as a research work on World War II, though its more of a Russian point of view and about how Stalin lay down his human soldiers like waves one by one to protect the Russian Capital. He tried to compare Stalin and Hitler in terms of their tactics, brutality and its a tough question to answer who was more brutal or in other way who did more deadly mistakes that costs a million of lives of troops from both the sides. It is a great work to give equal importance to the battle of Moscow that changed the course of World War II and the soldiers involved that played a pivotal role in downfall of Nazi regime.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rate this book so high because it taught me a lot about a major portion of recent world history that I didn't know I didn't know.

D-Day, the part everyone knows about from Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers, involved the landing of some 160,000 troops in France. Operation Overlord (the invasion of Europe) in its entirety involved some 2,000,000 allied forces in the first two months. The Battle for Moscow alone had more Russian casualties than entire European Invasion had allied forces! Who knew? I sure didn't.

Amazingly tragic and sobering what happens when two monstrous leaders with massive egos and minimal value for human life throwing millions of men into a battle. Worth reading to better understand the world we live in today, and to make sure mankind avoids the same path in the future.

[JEAN-PHILIPPE PEROL · Rating 2 out of 5]

Andrew Nagorski a choisi d'écrire sur une bataille qui marqua le premier échec de la Blitzkrieg hitlérienne, une bataille dont les enjeux militaires mais surtout politiques furent considérables. On regrettera énormément le parti pris absolu de l'auteur qui passe tellement de pages à démontrer l'incompétence voire la bêtise et surtout l'horreur avilissante de Staline que l'on ne parvient plus à comprendre comment l'Armée Rouge a réussi là où les armées française et anglaises avaient si lamentablement échouées. Si de nombreux récits personnels donnent une dimension humaine très interessante, le livre nous laisse malheuresement sans explications quant aux raisons fondementales de la victoire russe - une victoire qui fut le prélude à la nôtre.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to imagine a book making you feel sympathy for Stalin, but there was a bit of that feeling from this book. The image of Stalin cowering in his dachau when the German's invaded Russia in fear that his own government would have him shot is striking.

The bungling by Hitler shows yet again just how close they came to winning this war. A good book that shed new light on a subject that I had been briefly aware of before.

[Sarah Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hauntingly realistic. After reading, one realises why russia suffered the greatest casualties during ww2

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is less of a military account of the battle for Moscow than it is a behind-the-scenes look at the regimes of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin during that enormous conflict. The majority of the focus, though, is on Stalin. And in that regard, the amount of research here is very commendable. I can imagine the kinks that Andrew Nagorski had to work out when it comes to what's true and what's a result of Soviet propaganda. The result is a very fascinating and readable account of the tyrant himself; how his dallying and hesitation almost allowed the Nazis to seize Moscow in a matter of months, and how his erratic tendencies greatly influenced those around him. Nagorski used a good deal of primary sources, including but not limited to Western war correspondents and Soviet generals themselves. I found these accounts to be fascinating, though the long-windedness of some of them seemed to detract from the primary narrative. This was the only real shortcoming of the book; there was a rather heavy amount of anecdotal material that, while relevant, made me feel a bit impatient about what was happening in the bigger picture.
On Hitler's side, there is not as much meat. We primarily hear from his generals, in particular Heinz Guderian. Nagorski draws from Guderian's own correspondence and memoirs to paint a picture of a very disillusioned general, frustrated to the core at Hitler's refusal to heed the advice of his generals. From delaying the invasion altogether to quell a rebellion in Albania, to splitting up the advance into attacks on three cities instead of Moscow itself, to doing nothing about the Wehrmacht's desperate shortage of winter clothing and supplies, Hitler's blunders are exposed and explained clearly in this book.
This is not intended to be a definitive account of the battle for Moscow. Rather, it gives us perspective from the people who fought it, suffered from it, and led it. I recommend this to any military history fan- you will learn at least something new from it.

[David Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nagorski tells us that the battle for Moscow was the largest battle, not just of World War II, but of all time. It was bigger than Stalingrad and bigger than Kursk. Seven million troops were engaged in the battle, which was an early turning point of the war. This book is about that battle.

Except that it isn't. This is an interesting and entertaining look at many aspects of the struggle for Moscow, but it's not really about combat. The author spends no time at all telling us about the disposition of combat units and nothing about the ebb and flow of the battle. Below the army or corps group, no units or commanders are named.

I would say, then, that this perhaps isn't the best book to read for somebody new to the topic. But if you've read other books about the Eastern Front, I think you'll find it interesting. The first third or so of the book sets the scene, focusing on the politics of the first couple of years of the war and going into some detail of the personalities of Hitler and Stalin.

Having set the scene, the author then takes us all around the edges: how did Moscow civilians react, what was done to prepare the city, the transfer of government officials to Kuibyshev, and a whole bunch of anecdotes related by survivors and relatives of survivors, and so on. Finally, the final pages give us some analysis of why things turned out the way they did, and what might have happened had things gone differently.

Includes notes, bibliography, index, several photos, and a couple of maps.

[Jamie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gripping story well told, about a crucial battle of World War II that is too often glossed over and forgotten. I was initially surprised that so much of the book dealt with people rather than fighting, but I came to see it as a good thing. First, it puts the battle into perspective to see how it affected those involved, from Hitler and Stalin themselves down to individual soldiers and others caught up in the maelstrom. Second, the actual details of the fighting are so ghastly, so brutal and relentlessly horrific, that I’m not sure I could have taken 300 pages of it.

Hitler was an incompetent fool, a megalomaniac corporal who thought himself a military genius and who overrode the advice of generals who actually knew what they were doing. Stalin was an soulless brute, willing to throw away the lives of as many Russians as it took to achieve his goals, and to terrorize the rest. I was appalled to learn that the Germans killed 22,000 of their own troops during the war as punishment, but the Russians killed around 158,000. (The US executed one.)

All war is murder, and madness, but in its never-ending torment the battle for Moscow should rank in our consciences along with Verdun, Passchendaele, and Stalingrad.

[Colby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book very much and highly recommend it. I purchased it on a sale table at the Strand Bookstore in NYC several years ago but did not begin reading it in earnest until last month. It was hard to put down. For World War II buffs it is an important read as not much has been written for the public about the titanic campaign by Hitler to win the war in the East by taking Moscow. The author does a good job in developing the characters of Hitler and Stalin, and describing the details of the battles and the mind-boggling casualties in the many millions of civilians and servicemen. The firsthand observations of witnesses of human experiences are outstanding. Truly the outcome of this conflict changed the course of world history.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did learn a lot from this book which was of course the goal however it was at times a dry text. Still, it was interesting to get a spotlight on this one battle and the author provided detail and context that otherwise would be glossed over in a generalized text about the war. Most of the stats provided for this particular war are hard to stomach, the amount of lives lost and the way they were lost is something that should not be glossed over. I did enjoy that this book provided details about the front lines, the civilians, and leadership providing the full picture. From a leadership decision, you see the direct impacts down the chain of command to the bottom-tier soldiers to the civilians in the city. I would recommend this book only for those interested in those details.

[David Szatkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am guessing that this book ended up in my queue as part a desire to know a bit more of the history of WW2. I had also read "Hitlerland: American Eyewitness to the Nazi Rise to Power" by the same author and quite liked it. I find Nagorski an easy writer to listen to (I listened to this as an audio book). I learned a great deal about the main political figures in Europe at the time, the battle of Moscow, and how this event was part of the larger role this battle played in WW2. This is a good book for either the WW2 aficionado who wants to focus on the Eastern front or the casual enjoyer of history (me) who wants to know a bit more about an important event.

[Geicodave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history of the battle for Moscow in 1941/1942. For those new to reading about the Eastern Front there is plenty of information about the events leading up to the battle, and the reader will not feel he has been dropped into the middle of events without any context. For those familiar with Operation Barbarossa there is a wealth of interviews with participants, excerpts from diaries and letters, etc., all of which provide a human dimension that is frequently missing from military history books.

[Jim Beaumont · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read, only it doesn’t really give much detail on the actions themselves around Moscow but I guess that’s due to a lack of access to any accounts.
Great on the detail of the decision making, most of it bad when it comes to Stalin and Hitler and also gives a great view of how Stalin, with German troops only 20+ miles from Moscow, and facing defeat, was already making political moves for a post war Europe set up.
Yalta was the end of a long game, 4yrs in the making.