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Moscow
A historical novel of the Battle of Moscow in World War II.
350 pages, paperback
First published January 1, 1953
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 25, 2020
Una lectura muy meticulosa y pormenorizada de la parte tocante a la invasión de la URSS por el ejército nazi. Tiene toda la pinta de ser un guión fiel de la realidad sin necesidad de decorarlo o adornarlo más que la cruda realidad. A penas hay unos protagonistas principales, los pocos que hay son personajes casi anónimos (aunque con nombre). No deja de ser una lectura un poco tediosa por la cantidad de detalles bélicos, geográficos, volumen de páginas, pero que en mi caso particular me hicieron seguir con la lectura por un afán meramente didáctico y de aprender algo de historia.
February 28, 2016
An amazing book, written by Theodor Plievier, that explains the true story of one of the fiercest battles in the eastern front in world war 2. It is one of the 3 books of a trilogy written by the same writer that talks about the 3 fiercest wars between the Germans and Russians: the battle of Moscou, then that of Stalingrad and finally the Battle of Berlin !!! I really look forward to read the 2 other books of the trilogy !! The book is divided into three parts: the first part describes the war from the German viewpoint, the second part describes the war from the Russian viewpoint and the third part describes it from both viewpoints. The way the details are used and entered in the storyis incredible !!! However there will be no spoilers about the book ...
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September 24, 2010I knew it all already and this books confirms it: war has no winners, just losers
June 3, 2024
Remarkable novel. Plievier is an interesting guy: a Commie, he worked for the USSR during the war in the Soviet's propaganda division. He interviewed survivors of the German Sixth Army after Stalingrad and wrote "Stalingrad," his most famous novel, at the end of the war. "Moscow" and "Berlin" came later.
"Moscow" is on a level with "Stalingrad." Plievier does a wonderful job of concentrating throughout on individuals. While he paints unforgettable pictures of the savagery of war, and its impact on both soldiers and civilians, his focus allows a reader to care more deeply than they might about general misery.
"Moscow" is different than "Stalingard," however, in that it focuses more on Russians than Germans (although both Gnotke and Vilshofen, who are characters in the latter reappear - or first appear - here). And despite his Communist leanings, Plievier gives it to the Bolsheviks with both barrels. It's remarkable a fellow traveler saw things so clearly, although Plievier did have first-hand experience with those monsters.
The novel unfolds in straight chronological order, from Operation Barbarossa's launch in June 1941 to the Red Army's counterattack that threw the Germans back from Moscow (and essentially sealed Nazi Germany's doom right then) in December of that year. Plievier notes how many in the Russian countryside, starved and enslaved by the Communists, welcomed the Germans as liberators. As a Red Army conscript remarks early, "Why fight when our industry, which for thirty years only produced for defense and give it such priority that for thirty years it couldn't let the people have a cooking spoon or shoes or clothing, leaves us without a weapon when it comes to the point?"
There are some powerful descriptions of the Holomodor, Stalin's forced starvation that murdered millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s and contributed to the welcoming attitude toward the Germans. We also met Uralov early. Uralov, an epic soldier, is an orphan who has been brought up by the Soviet state and instilled with a love and respect for it. That slowly evaporates as the early catastrophes of the war mount for the USSR. "Why must one first have lost his father and mother at birth, and not know his own name or the history of his family in order to be a devoted Soviet citizen," one Russian officer muses and another, moments later, wonders yes, what does that mean after all?
"Well, our Uralov has learned to read and write, has got everything he possesses from our Soviet State - and doesn't know what the Soviet State has taken from him. Now he's ready to give his life and says, 'For the Fatherland, for Stalin,'" the officer marvels. ("Fatherland" is an odd translation of what would be "rodina" or, usually, the "Motherland" in Russian).
That such experiences were *by design* with Communism dawns on the millions caught completely unprepared and ill equipped to deal with the Wermacht's onslaught.
One of the most depressing things in "Moscow" is that not everyone gets what they deserve, but of course war pays no attention to worth and Communists value only heartlessness. In particular, a nasty Commie rat, an unthinking apparatchik, Yadanov, never gets his comeuppance. He oversees a secret slave labor camp and, like a good Bolshevik, cares nothing for individuals. But, like many party members, Yadanov often lives well. Many flee, leaving the populace to starve or die, gorging themselves in retreat or in Moscow.
As the Germans advance over a carpet of people (literally, in one scene), Plievier gives a wonderful, sweeping shot of Moscow, and then bores in on Stalin and the Politbureau within a Kremlin warren. The toadies surrounding the dictator are depicted like the scheming bastards they were, and they have no concern with the unprecedented horrors they have inflicted on the people. "The maintenance and extension of their power throughout the world - that was the only consideration of these men. The fifteen faces collected round the table were empty masks; the problem for one and all was how to hold on to power."
Fortunately, they didn't (though they have never paid the price they should, historically, to the West's detriment). Plievier writes with great feeling about the catastrophe Communism and its twin, Fascism, produced in so many lives, and provides a pitiless view of war. A moving, powerful book.
"Moscow" is on a level with "Stalingrad." Plievier does a wonderful job of concentrating throughout on individuals. While he paints unforgettable pictures of the savagery of war, and its impact on both soldiers and civilians, his focus allows a reader to care more deeply than they might about general misery.
"Moscow" is different than "Stalingard," however, in that it focuses more on Russians than Germans (although both Gnotke and Vilshofen, who are characters in the latter reappear - or first appear - here). And despite his Communist leanings, Plievier gives it to the Bolsheviks with both barrels. It's remarkable a fellow traveler saw things so clearly, although Plievier did have first-hand experience with those monsters.
The novel unfolds in straight chronological order, from Operation Barbarossa's launch in June 1941 to the Red Army's counterattack that threw the Germans back from Moscow (and essentially sealed Nazi Germany's doom right then) in December of that year. Plievier notes how many in the Russian countryside, starved and enslaved by the Communists, welcomed the Germans as liberators. As a Red Army conscript remarks early, "Why fight when our industry, which for thirty years only produced for defense and give it such priority that for thirty years it couldn't let the people have a cooking spoon or shoes or clothing, leaves us without a weapon when it comes to the point?"
There are some powerful descriptions of the Holomodor, Stalin's forced starvation that murdered millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s and contributed to the welcoming attitude toward the Germans. We also met Uralov early. Uralov, an epic soldier, is an orphan who has been brought up by the Soviet state and instilled with a love and respect for it. That slowly evaporates as the early catastrophes of the war mount for the USSR. "Why must one first have lost his father and mother at birth, and not know his own name or the history of his family in order to be a devoted Soviet citizen," one Russian officer muses and another, moments later, wonders yes, what does that mean after all?
"Well, our Uralov has learned to read and write, has got everything he possesses from our Soviet State - and doesn't know what the Soviet State has taken from him. Now he's ready to give his life and says, 'For the Fatherland, for Stalin,'" the officer marvels. ("Fatherland" is an odd translation of what would be "rodina" or, usually, the "Motherland" in Russian).
That such experiences were *by design* with Communism dawns on the millions caught completely unprepared and ill equipped to deal with the Wermacht's onslaught.
One of the most depressing things in "Moscow" is that not everyone gets what they deserve, but of course war pays no attention to worth and Communists value only heartlessness. In particular, a nasty Commie rat, an unthinking apparatchik, Yadanov, never gets his comeuppance. He oversees a secret slave labor camp and, like a good Bolshevik, cares nothing for individuals. But, like many party members, Yadanov often lives well. Many flee, leaving the populace to starve or die, gorging themselves in retreat or in Moscow.
As the Germans advance over a carpet of people (literally, in one scene), Plievier gives a wonderful, sweeping shot of Moscow, and then bores in on Stalin and the Politbureau within a Kremlin warren. The toadies surrounding the dictator are depicted like the scheming bastards they were, and they have no concern with the unprecedented horrors they have inflicted on the people. "The maintenance and extension of their power throughout the world - that was the only consideration of these men. The fifteen faces collected round the table were empty masks; the problem for one and all was how to hold on to power."
Fortunately, they didn't (though they have never paid the price they should, historically, to the West's detriment). Plievier writes with great feeling about the catastrophe Communism and its twin, Fascism, produced in so many lives, and provides a pitiless view of war. A moving, powerful book.
July 18, 2025
Didn't enjoy this as much as "The Kaiser goes...".
October 28, 2019
Novela muy cruda, donde se describe la dureza de la guerra. Se ven los conflictos entre las tres partes que siempre se ven afectadas en toda guerra, los civiles contra el ejército y los políticos y también los políticos contra el ejército, cada uno contra todos y defendiendo su "verdad", y quién siempre paga es...., sí los civiles, aunque en este caso también el ejército o mejor los dos ejércitos.
Las posiciones debieron ser tal y como se describen y las batallas también.
Se ve la diferencia entre ejército y SS, dentro del avance alemán.
Final crudo para los vencidos y con un poco de propaganda por parte del autor hacia sus simpatizantes.
La arenga del Oficial alemán a sus hombres es fabulosa, así como la crudeza de los pensamientos y acciones de Hitler y Stalin, carne de cañón, sólo carne de cañón.
El General Invierno es al final el verdadero protagonista de la novela y eso que no mantiene ni un solo diálogo, sólo actúa.
Buena novela para todos, amantes y no amantes del género bélico.
Las posiciones debieron ser tal y como se describen y las batallas también.
Se ve la diferencia entre ejército y SS, dentro del avance alemán.
Final crudo para los vencidos y con un poco de propaganda por parte del autor hacia sus simpatizantes.
La arenga del Oficial alemán a sus hombres es fabulosa, así como la crudeza de los pensamientos y acciones de Hitler y Stalin, carne de cañón, sólo carne de cañón.
El General Invierno es al final el verdadero protagonista de la novela y eso que no mantiene ni un solo diálogo, sólo actúa.
Buena novela para todos, amantes y no amantes del género bélico.
December 28, 2016
This war novel is an impressive account of the Eastern Front. Plievier describes the Barbarossa campaign till the defeat for the gates of Moskow. He uses the perspective of the German army via various persons, e.g. Bomelbürg, the commander of a tank regiment, but also Gotke, a leutenant in the same regiment. And he describes the Russian perspective as well, again by describing the lives of certain Russion military men or their family.
This war novel is part of a trilogy that made Plievier famous in the years after the war. Being a German in exile in Moskow, Plievier got to interview many German prisoners of war, and access to Red Army sources. This novel, as well as the other two "Stalingrad" and "Berlin" are graphic accounts of this very gruesome episode in our history.
This war novel is part of a trilogy that made Plievier famous in the years after the war. Being a German in exile in Moskow, Plievier got to interview many German prisoners of war, and access to Red Army sources. This novel, as well as the other two "Stalingrad" and "Berlin" are graphic accounts of this very gruesome episode in our history.
August 21, 2015
Makes you feel like you are part of the war
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews