Een voetbreed aarde

by Grigory Baklanov

Een smal bruggehoofd aan de Dnjestr, door de Russen in bezit genomen, wordt ten koste van veel mensenlevens tegen de aanvallen van de Duitsers verdedigd.

Genres: Russian Literature

203 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Grigory Yakovlevich Baklanov was a Russian novelist and editor, well known for his novels about World War II, and as the editor of the literary monthly Znamya during the time of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms.

Reviews

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So, the battle on the Eastern front written from a Russian point of view. It's as cruel, harsh and pointless as on the German side.
While Baklanov tells his story with a (very mild) communist twist, it hasn't descended into plain propaganda. He doesn't shun depicting the injustice in the Red army, the cowardice, the complete lack of value of the individual. When he addresses the atrocities commited by the Germans, he forgets however to mention the heinous cruelties that the soviets turned into their trademark.

Anyway, I liked it. (not the atrocities, but the book)