Eastern Front Photos

Rating:
Summary: Difficult images from a troubled past
Review: If you're reading this, you probably know who professor John Erickson is, and what "Eastern Front" does mean. But let's suppose you've just stumbled here, and you're wondering what it's all about. Well: you can buy "The Eastern Front In Photographs" for two reasons. The first is to have a quick overview of what happened in those fateful 4 years of war between the German surprise assault on Russia (operation "Barbarossa", 22nd June 1941) and the fall of Berlin in May 1945: the so called Russian (or Eastern) Front of WWII, also known - in the former Soviet Union - as the Great Patriotic War. Or you could be interested in the pictures themselves. In both cases, "The Eastern Front In Photographs" is something you should buy.

Professor John Erickson (here helped by his wife Lubjica) is the world most renowned expert on the Russian Front. His two-volume history on the war ("The Road To Stalingrad" and "The Road To Berlin") are nothing short of a true (and voluminous!) bible on the argument. When I say "voluminous", I don't exaggerate - a complete cover-to-cover reading of these books takes an inordinate amount of time and some serious commitment. The beginner or causal reader could be frightened away by the table of contents alone. So, in the recent years, Prof. Erickson has devoted himself to digest a bit his own phenomenal knowledge of the subject, first appearing in the great "The Russian Front" documentary - available both on video and DVD - and then with this well edited collection of images, the majority of which never previously published.

A word of caution is here necessary - most of the pics collected in this book aren't "nice", at least, not in the current meaning of the words. Not only not titillating exploitative in the modern sense (the kind of flashy images of wartime horrors and wartime action we've been used to) but the majority doesn't deal even with any action at all. And this tells much about the honesty of Prof. Erickson's approach - because, even more than a war fought, the Eastern Front (that, it's now sensible to remind, it was the 80% of the entire WWII in Europe) was a war endured, by civilian and combatant alike. And no one endured it more than the Russian people: the overwhelming majority of the pictures are images of suffering, physical and psychological. Some - as those related to the horrors of anti-partisan warfare - are truly appalling, but awfully true nevertheless. If you still see war simply as a sequence of military operations, exciting heroics and unrelenting action, this book is a bitter cure.

There's, however, the other side of the coin: the propaganda (still propaganda but less blatantly "false" as one could imagine, thanks to the proverbial Russian understatement), the daily life, the countless pictures of children, the occasional humorous bits (like the sunbathing couples among Sevastopol ruins), and, of course, the military machine in action. And although the majority of pictures are Russian, the German side gets some kind of exposure, albeit limited. As I mentioned before, "The Eastern Front In Photographs" work well to as an introductory text. And it's here, of course, that professor Erickson skill does really shine. Skilfully ordered by chapters echoing the structure of the two "Roads", the text gives a comprehensive chronicle of what happened, when it happened, and why it did happen that way. Recently discovered or still sensitive topics (as the origins of the conflict, Operation Mars or the Warsaw Revolt) are given an authoritative treatment accordingly to the most recent findings. Conversely, you'll not find the same gross exaggerations and distortions still so habitual in this kind of literature. If you're new to the subject, is should probably look no further.

To sum it up: not a breakthrough but a great visual and textual account by a leading authority on a murderous conflict, one of the most important event in recent history, still neglected in the West ten years after the end of the Cold War.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing yet factual look at the horrors of Eastern Front
Review: Many people still don't realize the brutality of the Eastern Front, for them this book is the reminder of the sacrifice of the Soviet people to defeat the hated Germans who invaded their country. Definitely not for the squeamish.

Rating:
Summary: Definetly a waste of money and shelf space
Review: Sadly I got myself talked into buying this book from a WWII forum and I did so without the benefit of shifting through its pages.
One must end up thinking that a campaing as massive as the eastern front would show more fotographic evidence from the russian side than the so often seen images of the eastern front aficionado. I thought that by now more photos would emerge but nothing alike.
Believe me, if you have three decent books about the eastern front you aren't missing much here. Maybe a 10% of rare non-common photos. Because folks, this book is about photos and nothing more. Captions are miserable and openly wage if not straightforward missused to the author's storyline. Photos you have seen with other captions in other books, also clear inventions easily uncovered by the readed and well informed peruser. Photos clearly of 43-45 with 41 captions, mismatched geographic areas...
I don't want even begin with the clear agenda of this author. It barely deviates from Ehrenburg's propaganda diatrabes of the 40's. Overly inflated German casuality figures that seem Saddam Husseins claims of western losses during the Gulf war.
It was a waste of money and those "dead" photos everybody talks about that made this book so "interesting" you have already seen, believe me.

Rating:
Summary: a picture is worth a thousand words
Review: This is a great compilation of photos from the German-Soviet front. It shows the tremendous heroism and sacrifice of Soviet people in bringing hitlerite Germany to its knees. Probably no other nation would have enough will and courage to stop the biggest terrorists of our times.