Absolute War: Soviet Russia in the Second World War: A Modern History

by Christopher Bellamy

There have been many individual accounts of particular moments in the vicious war between the Nazi regime and the Soviet behemoth, but none which sets out to tell the full and dreadful story of that absolute absolute because both sides aimed to `exterminate the opponent, to destroy his political existence` and total because it was fought by all elements of society, not simply the armed forces, but civilians - men, women, children - too. Chris Bellamy, Professor of Military Science at Cranfield University, is one of the world`s leading experts on this subject and has been working on this book for almost a decade. It benefits from his remarkable insight into strategic issues as well as exhaustive research in hitherto unopened Russian archives. It is the definitive study of what the Soviets called - and what their fifteen successor states still call - the Great Patriotic War.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, Russia, War, Military History, Russian History

Hardcover

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Christopher Bellamy was born in 1955 and was educated at the universities of Oxford, London, Westminster and Edinburgh, and at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Professor Bellamy began his career as an officer in the Royal Artillery, before pursuing an academic career in War Studies. He was Defence Correspondent of The Independent and the Independent on Sunday and reported widely on conflict and its consequences from Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, from Kurdistan, Rwanda, Chechnya, and Bosnia. He was shortlisted for Foreign Reporter of the Year at the 1996 British Press Awards for his work from Chechnya and Bosnia. He is the author of Red God of War, The Future of Land Warfare, The Times Atlas of the Second World War, The Evolution of Modern Land Warfare, Expert Witness and Knights in White Armour. Christopher Bellamy is now Professor of Military Science and Doctrine at Cranfield University.
His latest book, The Gurkhas, published by John Murray in 2011, explores the history of the elite troops of the East Indian Company from their origins in the hills of Nepal to the wars they fought for the Crown, from World War One to the Falklands to Afghanistan.

Reviews

[Dimitri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spend half your time with Barbarossa.
Let 1942 be only about Stalingrad & 1943 only about Kursk.
Fast forward the rest of the war to Berlin.
This structure is tired, predictable and unjust.
Read instead:
Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941-1945 by Evan Mawdsley
It has earned its second edition.

[Olethros · Rating 4 out of 5]

-Una obra reciente a la altura de clásicos más antiguos sobre el tema del Frente Oriental pero que se queda a un pasito de esa categoría.-

Género. Historia.

Lo que nos cuenta. Ensayo sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial en el Frente Oriental, que analiza la situación en los tiempos previos al conflicto, las implicaciones del pacto Molotov-Ribbentrop, la concepción de Barbarroja, un análisis de sus posibles razones tácticas y el relato del posterior desarrollo de los acontecimientos hasta la rendición alemana, con un pequeño repaso a lo que sucedió después en Manchuria.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Aeneas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bought this based on a recommendation that it was the best general history on probably the most important conflict in human history...it isn't. For some reason the author kept drawing comparisons to Gulf War 1 and Gulf War 2, throughout the book...

"Furthermore, the meticulous Soviet arrangements for 'state building' and establishing security in the immediate wake of military conquest or reconquest-for example, in Poland, the Baltic States and post-war Germany-compare quite favorably, in terms of their organization and effectiveness, with recent efforts in Iraq."

..wait what??? So, we were as effective in Iraq as the Soviet Union was in maintaining the Warsaw Pact for 40+ years? Good to know that Iraq is squared away. How can you make any comparisons between those two conflicts; one a total war in which 6 million plus men(and women) were under arms led by two totalitarian leaders, with the Soviet Union suffering at least 25 million casualties over 4 years and George Bush's "regime change" fuck up in Iraq?

I wish I could get the time and money, I wasted reading this mess of a book, masquerading as history refunded.

[David Hymas · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to understand the war in the East, this book is a must read. Written from the meta-level of troop numbers, supply tonnage, and corps movements, the reader gets the perspective of a truly massive onslaught of men and material. It is NOT a gripping acount of individual soldiers or smaller units. Instead, it focuses on the overall struggle, which makes it a staggering portrayal of the lows men are capable of in their desires to rule each other. It is particularly harrowing in comparison with America's recent conflicts, which represent but a few hours of the loss and casualties incurred on the Eastern Front. Meticulously researched and based on newely opened Soviet files, this book will likely become THE reference for Hitler's Barbarossa dreams. Of course, it runs the risk of trying to do too much by documenting the entire Eastern Front. But at almost a 1000 pages, Bellamy makes the best of his medium.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

My four-start review reflects an A+ first two-thirds of the book and a C- finale. The beginning of the book covering from the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact through the assault on Moscow is amazing. It describes in fascinating detail why the Soviets and Nazis made peace against all seeming sense, how Stalin reacted to Hitler's treachery, and how the Soviet Union as a whole pulled together in its darkest hours of 1941. But the author himself admits that after the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk the outcome is inevitable, so once that turning point is reached it just becomes about "how" (a list of battles and maps) rather than "why." The last third of the book is interesting for the military historian... but the first part of the book is interesting to any reader with an eye for fascinating insights behind the formative struggle of 20th century history.

[Yong Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and exhaustive. I bought this book two years ago in London and finally finished it on the second try. Germany lost.

[Ugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would it be wrong of me to compare the prospect and execution of reading this 687-page (not including the notes, bibliography and index) behemoth to that of the war in the east itself? Best not, I suppose.

Maybe it would suffice to say that having bought Absolute War for the '40s-esque price of a mere £1, it took me two years to pick it up in anger, and even then I expected to just read the intro and then shelve it again for perhaps another 2-20 years. However, instead I ploughed on through to the other side with all the swiftness of Pliev's cavalry-mechanized group, in an impressively swift two weeks.

True, had I not had the uninterrupted leisure of the Christmas holidays to devote, I might have had chance to grow battle weary and be tempted by surrender, but the point is - it didn't happen.

So what of the contents? I can make little to no comment on the book's extensiveness, not knowing anything more about the topic than what I learned here. More knowledge was taken for granted than I would perhaps have liked - of Stalin's character, for example - but Bellamy states early on that his intention is not to rehash old ground, so I can't really fault him for assuming that someone picking his book up might already have a bit of background knowledge. The book was never dull enough for me to seriously contemplate giving up, which is quite a feat considering its subject matter and size, although the many similar battles from the turning of the German advance up to the Soviet capture of the Reichstag did get rather tedius at times. Again though, I can't really blame Bellamy if the events of the war got a bit samey as the Soviets drove towards Berlin. There are some fascinating sections - esp the ones on relations between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, and in the final reckoning these were enough to keep the momentum going. Absolute War recounts the most impressively logistical and staggeringly wasteful endeavours in human history, depressing as that may be, and perhaps not surprisingly that makes for interesting if at times uncomfortable reading.

Not the most festive of reads perhaps, but then I couldn't have got through it at any other time. And I'm glad I did, even if I'm now in pretty severe need of a little RnR. White Russian, anyone?

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

A dense and mazy account of Russia's role in World War II, illuminated only briefly at the start by its general premise. Most World War II histories that I've read have cast Russia as a bit player in the grander drama of the conflict, a loyal but undistinguished ally to the British and Americans. Bellamy's history thrusts us into the world of Russia in the war, viewing history from their perspective. This was a new experience for me, and one that promised to be revelatory. However, the logistics and tactical maneuverings of war are handled with little grace and even less clarity. It takes a certain sort of historian to convey military tactics with the right balance of accessibility and accuracy, and I don't think Bellamy is that sort. The book is really boring, and his attempts at snarky editorializing were misplaced and irritating. An exercise in patience that is not well-rewarded.

[Logan Zwerneman · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Hard pounding, this. Who would pound longest?” “‘Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure.’ Men and women, some of them, did endure, and built another world.”

With tens (!) of millions irrecoverably lost by the soviets and Germans in the greatest war of attrition the world’s ever seen, the Great Patriotic War of WWII’s eastern front, it seems like there was really only one winner: ironically, the western allies. And even then, “victory” wasn’t fully realized without threat of impending doom until almost 50 years later. If you feel ignorant of what role the East played in WWII, this is the book for you. Bellamy discusses the five main acts of Russia in WWII: the Nazi-Soviet alliance (1939-1941); its near collapse (1941-42); the outlasting of the Nazis (1943-1944); the Nazi collapse (1945); and the laying of the Cold War’s foundations (1945). He does so with particular emphasis on the 1941-1943 years and with impressive scope in the personalities and rivalries discussed on the Soviet side. This book has my full endorsement to any interested in WWII and, like myself previously, thought of Britain and USA as the only reasons the Allies pulled through. Excellent book.

Bellamy discusses things on a timetable that was at times hard to follow. Rather than discussing events chronologically, he would discuss certain topics chronologically from 1941-1945, then restart the chronology with a different topic (so discussing the casualties through the war, then how the alliance worked, then the battles, then the western front, etc) and i found it hard to follow at times. Either way, great book.

I’ll also add that reading “Waiting for Hitler” about Stalin is an excellent buildup to this.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book that contains a lot of details (army, division, brigade numbers for each side and their activity....... if you are looking for this good, otherwise it seems a little overwhelming at times). There were many reference maps (which is good) but the print is sometimes too small. It explains the strategies of the various sides well and the book is well organized. A good detailed read.

[Luis Cardenas · Rating 5 out of 5]

la determinación, el sacrificio y el coraje del ejercito ruso para sobrevivir en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, al enfrentarse no sólo a Alemania como enemigo territorial, también a la posible extinción como sistema político.
Una investigación básica para entender el frente oriental desde Barbarroja en 1941 hasta Berlin en 1945.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of the prelude and first phase (1941-1943) of the Russo-German war of 1941-1945, the "greatest and most terrible" war in history so far no question about it.

The 1944-1945 phase is less emphasized, more of an overview than a true analysis for reasons the author explains clearly, but the first part is extraordinarily well done.

The book would have needed two volumes for the same detail in the latter part, but that one is much better known since it was extensively publicized in Soviet times too, while the first part was less well publicized and the recent archive openings in Moscow allow a much better picture to be drawn.

Excellent with the caveat above - 1941-1943, rather than the whole war.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book looking at the war from the Eastern European view. Most books are written with a western European or American outlook, this looks at the brutality on the Eastern Front.

As a historian who is currently writing some overviews on some of the Eastern fronts for a museum this is a handy reference point when I need to prod in the right direction.

This is no light read and it doesnt pull any punches you read and experience the full brutality of war, taking in Stalingrad, Warsaw and the battle for Berlin. Covering the Jewish and non-Jewish holocaust.

Some may consider this a hard read but it is worth it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Misses 5 stars because of the many grammatical errors. Either the book wasn't proofed at all, or the proofreaders did a terrible job. That's a shame, considering the voluminous research Bellamy engaged in. The maps are nothing special, either.

Bellamy makes the point early on that this tome is not exhaustive, particularly post-1942. Given that limitation, he has done a masterful job, with the caveat that readers with some background on the Soviet Union's relationship with Nazi Germany will likely get more out of this book than those who don't.

[Holly Woodward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book blew me away. A harrowing account of the Russian army at war with the Nazis. Bellamy goes deep into the stories behind mere statistics, delving into newly released documents about Stalin. This book changed my understanding of the world, profoundly.

[Steven Voorhees · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Animals flee this hell; the hardest stones cannot bear it for long; only men endure." Thus said a German officer about the Battle of Stalingrad. In Bellamy's magisterial yet overwhelming chronicle of the Soviet Union in World War II, it IS humankind that endured -- but at tremendous cost. The Second World War is known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia and could be seen as the continuation of the 1812 Napoleonic invasion. The parallels between the two conflicts, over a century apart, are striking: A powerful, absolute commander invades the great eastern behemoth (Russia) hoping to liberate it from what he deems ills (for Napoleon, it was Poland. For Adolf Hitler, it was his hatred of communism and his desire/need for Russia's natural resources). Bellamy returns to the Napoleonic analogy often, but of course, his focus is the Russia under siege from Hitler's invasion on June 22, 1941 through the Allied victory over him four years later. In detailed (yet) draining prose and minutely drawn and detailed cartography, the story of how Nazi Germany awoke a sleeping giant (he uses the same historical cliché to describe Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor) unfolds. And in both instances, for the slumbering titans, assailed, nothing less than the total destruction of their Axis penetrators will suffice. Dense yet fascinating, ABSOLUTE WAR is probably the definitive book on the subject of Russia AND Russian resilience in WW II.

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new one volume on the Soviet war effort utilizing the few decades of scholarship that occurred following the deluge of records the breakup of the SU caused, it's extremely readable and a great overview of the most modern opinions upon the war effort. Fair and balanced to give an accurate portrayal of the ebbs and flows of the war, though with specific emphasis on the 1941-42 period the author has judged to be most critical. Plenty of emphasis placed behind the frontlines on both sides to the partisan effort, the industry, and the political/security efforts. Where the emphasis is placed does make the last 1/4-1/3 feel a bit rushed which holds it back from a higher rating but at over 650 pages of writing already I think extending it would've been outweighed by a grinding down of the reader. In some ways just the nature of the work. Highly recommend for anyone interested in the subject matter.

One extra bit though, get the physical version. While the e-reader version I read was more than good the graphics are extremely well done and were just too small to utilize on the epub version and felt almost like I was wasting the high-quality work done there.

[Antonio Moreno Pini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estudio en profundidad de la Segunda guerra mundial centrada en la lucha entre Alemania y Rusia, desde el momento de la firma del pacto de no agresión a la tom de Berlin por parte de la Union Sovietica.

Muy bien documentada teniendo en cuenta todos lso documentos e informes que ya a finales el Siglo XX fueron liberados por el antoiguo KGB y los ministerios rusos.

Capitulos detallados cubriendo todos los aspectos del sitio de Leningrado, la guerra casa a casa, habitacion a habitacion en Stalingrado, la batalla de Kursk, LA toma de Sebastopol por Alemanai y luego la recuperación por los soviéticos.

En el aspecto militar destacan la gran cantidad de mapas con los movimientos de las tropas y partisanos de ambos lados y sus avances.

Una gran obra para retratar ese periodo historico y las batallas mas populosas que ha habido en la historia.

[M Moses · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best of the books that I have found on Soviet Russia in WWII! Most American and British books on the war only briefly mention the Eastern front but give no detail whatsoever. Others that focus on this front only are hard to enjoy compilations of messages between the generals and Stalin's Stavka, the high command of the Soviet forces, or laborious tomes through which it is impossible to stay awake. Bellamy does a far superior job!

I'm certainly no fan of communists then or now, but you do not understand the victory in WWII without reading how much the Soviets sacrificed and fought in that war. Arguably, they may very well have been the major reason that the Allies were able to defeat Nazi Germany. What an incredible struggle in which they lost MILLIONS of men (and women) in the fight.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very informative book for me, as I am not an expert on the Russian front in the Second World War. The author has written a readable account of the war, and the book is packed with interesting insights. That said, I think the book could have done with a good editor. Bellamy tends to be repetitive with facts he has already mentioned, and the occurrence of typos and factual errors (e.g., the chapter on Stalingrad refers to the Neva flowing by the city) was frequent. Were it not for the lack of editing, I would have rated this book 4 stars. It is still very much worth a read.

[L. Hanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of maps, lots of memo excerpts. This is a kind of top-down history of the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War. Missing: the kind of personal testimony found in Svetlana Alexievich's oral histories or the novelistic stylings of historians like Antony Beevor. Some books, while competent and even expert, just make history a dry and dusty thing. That said, for those wanting to add another volume to their bookshelf on Soviet victory in WW II, this is probably a worthy addition.

[Steven Raszewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent Ost Front book. This one covered the war from the Russians view the author had access to the Russian archives before Putin closed them up again. Lot of good information. Only thing I was disappointed in was there was no real coverage of the hundreds of thousands of Russians, Ukrainians and others who fought against the Soviets. Guess that is a book waiting to happen. And as I said before World War II was the Ost Front!

[Steve Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book for what happened on the eastern front (from the central European perspective), in terms of movement and battles, but also for beginning to understand the fundamental difference between the wars in western and eastern Europe - the war in the east wasn't just a war of conquest, it was a clash of civilisations, a war to the death of one system or the other.

I don't think many people in the west understand just how different the experience of the Great Patriotic War was from a Soviet perspective. To give a simple idea, here's a comparison of deaths, civilian and military, in WW2 by nation;

UK - 450,900
USA - 419,400
Germany - 6,900,000 to 7,400,000
Soviet Union - 20,000,000 to 27,000,000

This isn't to trivialise any of the deaths, but the scale of the war in the east is just incredible, and Absolute War gives you a sense of this.

Highly recommended.

[Caryatid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book, I was engrossed for all of it. The Russia slant on WWII made it very unusual for the genre and it appeared very fair on the judgments of the author re tactics. And relating events to the present day a great touch.
One little quibble, I had to keep an atlas and a magnifying glass to hand throughout. The maps were very detailed though some of the sites/cities mentioned in the text I had trouble finding.
Otherwise, excellent.

[Charles Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well done history of the war between Nazi era Germany and the Soviet Union during WW2. Most American citizens are taught the history of this war from our own country's perspective and not much about the fronts the US wasn't involved in. We aren't even really taught the extent and details of our supply operations to the USSR. This book makes up a lot of what was missing.

FWIW, it also lays the groundwork for understanding the current war between Russia and the Ukraine.

[Jared · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read although some of the authors writing seemed more opinionated than factual and I found this a little less engaging than I had hoped for. The focus of the book is really on the start of the war in the east through to around mid/late 1942. After that, the description of events in the theatre are brief compared to the earlier detail. The book is told primarily from the Russian side which provides useful and less common insights.

[Tamás Szajkó · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minden (és annál sokkal több), amit az ember tudni akart a keleti front történetéről. Panaszkodhatnék talán arra, hogy néha túlságosan elveszünk a részletekben, és hogy az 1941-es évről önmagában több szó van a könyvben, mint a 42-45 időszakról, de ez a lényegen nem változtat: a könyv tökéletesen megvalósítja a céljait.

[Steve Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent covering of the Eastern Front. The sheer scale of the theater and the fighting is almost to hard to comprehend. If you want a good overview plus the political machinations going on, this is a great read.

[Patrick Elsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an ok military overview but its lack of any political, cultural or economic info really harms it

[Nick Wetherbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute fantastic read that uses newer info on WW2 from the Soviet Archives and yet still remains fairly neutral on the biases normally seen on Eastern Front literature