Fortress Dark and Stern: The Soviet Home Front during World War II

by Wendy Z. Goldman, Donald Filtzer

The first history of the Soviet home front experience during World War II and of the civilians who bore the burden of total war and played a critical role in the global victory over fascism.

After Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, German troops conquered the heartland of Soviet industry and agriculture and turned the occupied territories into mass killing fields. The country's survival hung in the balance.

In Fortress Dark and Stern, Wendy Z. Goldman and Donald Filtzer tell the epic tale of the Soviet home front during World War II. Against the backdrop of the Red Army's early retreats and hard-fought advances after Stalingrad, they present the impact of total war behind the front lines in a chronicle of spirited defense efforts, draconian state directives, teeming black markets, official corruption, and selfless heroism. In one of the greatest wartime feats in history, Soviet workers rapidly evacuated factories, food, and people thousands of miles to the east. After long and dangerous journeys in unheated boxcars, they built a new industrial base beyond the reach of German bombers. As the Soviet state reached the height of its power, imposing military discipline and sending millions of people to work thousands of miles from home, ordinary people withstood starvation, epidemics, and horrific living conditions to supply the front and make the Allied victory possible This book examines the dark and painful war years from a new perspective, telling the stories of evacuees, refugees, teenaged and women workers, runaways from work, prisoners, and deportees.

Based on a vast trove of new archival materials, Fortress Dark and Stern reveals a history of suffering, sacrifice, and ultimate triumph largely unknown to Western readers.

Genres: History, World War II, Soviet Union, Nonfiction, Russia, Soviet History

528 pages, Hardcover

First published May 3, 2021

Reviews

[Joe Kelly]

A great, well researched and accessible read

A dispassionate narrative providing extensively detailed and data on food and living conditions in the SU during the war. The authors provide solid supporting evidence for their observation that the SU mobilized its population for a successful defensive war against the Nazi invasion largely through the voluntary efforts and labours of people and far less on forced labour coercion.

[John Buttell]

This is a remarkable work of scholarship. It manages to capture the monumental scale of organization, commitment and suffering on the home front that enabled the Red Army to defeat Nazi Germany. While a purged and disorganized army reeled back to Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad entire industries, massive amounts of commodities and millions of workers and other citizens were evacuated to the East. The new industrial sites began work even as their buildings and infrastructure were being constructed. Millions learned new skills and worked unbelievably long hours on the face of epidemic disease, inadequate housing and rations verging on or crossing the line to starvation. There was corruption, incompetence and administrative inflexibility but despite the desperate material circumstances and self inflicted wounds, the greatest industrial and military victory ever was won.

[Nick Veronica]

Good book on an underrated topic. The homefront condintions of the Soviet Union is by far the most brutal and tragic topic not talked about regarding WW2, The Russians during Operation Barbarossa moved nearly 1500 factories and millions of people east while being invaded and bombed by Nazi military and rebuilt probably 40% of their pre-war industrial capacity. Had they not done that, early collapse likely happens and US and British Forces may never even get to invade Europe as it doesn't happen without the russians holding out for nearly three years.

Book gets a little repetitive, but certainly highlights the horrors people endured away from the front line that allowed for the history we read today.

[Carolyn]

Adds to knowledge of WW2.