The Viaz'ma Catastrophe, 1941: The Red Army's Disastrous Stand against Operation Typhoon

by Lev Lopukhovsky, Stuart Britton (Translator)

This book describes one of the most terrible tragedies of the Second World War and the events preceding it. The horrible miscalculations made by the Stavka of the Soviet Supreme High Command and the Front commands led in October 1941 to the deaths and imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of their own people. Until recently, the magnitude of the defeats suffered by the Red Army at Viaz'ma and Briansk were simply kept hushed up. For the first time, in this book a full picture of the combat operations that led to this tragedy are laid out in detail, using previously unknown or little-used documents. The author was driven to write this book after his long years of fruitless search to learn what happened to his father Colonel N.I. Lopukhovsky, the commander of the 120th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, who disappeared together with his unit in the maelstrom of Operation Typhoon. He became determined to break the official silence surrounding the military disaster on the approaches to Moscow in the autumn of 1941. In the present edition, the author additionally introduces documents from German military archives, which will doubtlessly interest not only scholars, but also students of the Eastern Front of the Second World War. Lopukhovsky substantiates his position on the matter of the true extent of the losses of the Red Army in men and equipment, which greatly exceeded the official data. In the Epilogue, he briefly discusses the searches he has conducted with the aim of revealing the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Soviet soldiers, who to this point have been listed among the missing-in-action - including his own father. The narrative is enhanced by numerous photographs, color maps and tables.Lev Nikolaevich Lopukhovsky graduated from the prestigious Frunze Military Academy in 1962 and spent the next ten years serving in the Soviet Union's Strategic Rocket forces, rising to the rank of colonel and a regiment commander, before transferring to a teaching position in the Frunze Military Academy in 1972 due to health reasons. Lopukhovsky is a professor with the Russian Federation's Academy of Military Sciences (2008), and has been a member of Russia's Union of Journalists since 2004. Since 1989 he has been engaged in the search for those defenders of the Fatherland who went missing-in-action in the Second World War, including his own father Colonel N.I. Lopukhovsky, who is now known to have been killed while breaking out of encirclement in October 1941. Motivated by his father's disappearance, he had previously taken up the intense study of the Viaz'ma defensive operation and wrote the initial manuscript of the present book. In 1980 this manuscript was rejected by military censors, because it contradicted official views. Lopukhovsky is the author of several other books about the war, including Prokhorovka bez grifa sekretnosti [Prokhorovka without the seal of secrecy] (2005), Pervye dni voiny [First days of the war] (2007) and is the co-author of Iiun' 1941: Zaprogrammirovannoe porazhenie [June 1941: A Programmed Defeat] (2010). For his active search work, he was awarded the civilian Order of the Silver Star.

Genres: History, World War II

1129 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2012

Reviews

[Shimako · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Translation From The Russian

Probably not one of the page turners of the war on the eastern front. For that we must turn to authors such as Glanz and Beevor, etc. This book does tend to be somewhat repetitive and at times feels looong. But for those who remain engrossed in the tragedy of this conflict, how often does a history by a Russian, translated to English, become available. From my experiences almost never . Add to this the fact that it deals with the inconceivable events that took place at Viazma/Bryansk and the book is worth a read.

Normally, Viazma/Bryansk are only touched upon when discussing Operation Typhoon. Almost flippantly commenting on the capture and death of up to 1,000,000 soviet soldiers. One often gets the feeling that Operation Typhoon began after this calamity as opposed to it being the actual beginning of the German onslaught. This book brings that confusion to rest.

But here lies the books problem. The encirclement at Bryansk and Viazma took all of roughly two weeks, from October 2nd to the fourteenth. Just two weeks to kill up to 300,000 Russians and capture some 650,000 prisoners of war. The author covers the events day by day. He covers the three Fronts involved from a Front, army, corps, division and even a regiment perspective. The book can be very drawn out and repetitive. This was not a battle, it was a slaughter.

Formation after formation and unit after unit can’t get to where they need to be because always the Germans are more mobile. Unit after unit fail to break out because they are too weak, poorly led or disorganized. It becomes highly repetitive just as the actual event was. Tragically so. So, you will hopefully forgive me when I admit to having skipped through a good portion of the middle of the book.

Having said this, I will add that having read scores of Eastern Front histories, over more decades than I care to admit, this is the first time I can say I know what happened at Bryansk and Viazma. Isn’t that worth it?

[Mark Merritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed but informative book. The author is the son of the Commander of the 120th Heavy Artillery Regiment, which fought at the Viazma pocket. This unit, and many, many more were destroyed in the October 1941 battle, culminating in the loss of about 400,000 Soviet soldiers, and almost cost the Soviets the war. But the author gives enormous detail of the fighting, both with the Germans and the Soviet high command including Stalin. It’s rather hard to read, as many small villages and train stations are mentioned, that are not around anymore, so, even using Google Earth you can’t find all the locations. But, the book comes with numerous maps, and the author was committed to find the truth of what happened not only to his furthers unit, but to the Soviet armies that were destroyed in the fighting. He details the battlefield archeological efforts that went into finding some of the long dead soldiers and his fight with the authorities to discover the truth of fate of the units. Even to this day apparently it isn’t OK to discuss military failures of the Great Patriotic War in public in Russia. Overall, a very enjoyable, if somewhat tedious work. Definitely not for the weak of heart!

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent treatise

This book should be on the shelf of every military historian. This copy is a translation but still a very good one. You can get the sense of the desperate defense of the Eastern Front, the mistakes made by both the Russians and the Germans, and the general culture in Stalinist Russia. You can get the sense that there was a party line imposed on everyone, from top generals to professors and statisticians, that they were to cover up the sheer magnitude of the losses of men and materiel. Why? Because it made Stalin look bad. And as Stalin allegedly said, one death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.

For decades, the truth about the author's father was covered up. To this day, the author's father who fought at Via'zma still remains unknown but the author has helped veterans regain their honor, setting the record straight. Even if decades have passed, the veterans are already dead, but the knowledge that these men paid the highest price should not be forgotten.