On the Road to Stalingrad: Memoirs of a Woman Machine Gunner

Rating:
Summary: Memoirs of a Woman Machine Gunner
Review: Another brilliant look inside the life of a true Russian hero who happens to be female. Nearly one million women served the Soviet Armed Forces during WII, and many if not most of these women were active combatants.

The author fought with the famous 25th Chapayev Division, and provides us with an honest eyewitness account of the desperate fighting for the Odessa and Sevastopol. She was half-blinded yet she still drove herself to rise in the ranks and become a machine-gun company commander. In this book, she details the heroics of her comrades without focusing primarily on herself- though we certainly come to understand her integrity and grit.

Another wonderful offering from K.J. Cottam and New Military Publishing. Leslie Blanchard

Editor A Writer's Choice Literary Journa

Rating:
Summary: just a straight-forward memoir
Review: I highly recommend this memoir of a remarkable young Ukrainian woman, an ordinary Soviet soldier during the War. Zoya was nineteen when she volunteered as a battlefield medic. Inspired by a female machine-gunner in her regiment, she gradually learned the operation of the Maxim. Until she was wounded in action, she served in the elite 25th Chapeyev Division. The author published her memoirs long after the War and her subsequent marriage, under both her surnames, that her record with the Division be easily verified. Zoya's memoir was never intended for Western audiences, but only for general interest of Soviet citizens and fellow veterans. Nor is it propagandic. "On the Road to Stalingrad" contains none of the political agrandizement intended to inspire troops to greater achievement, as was the case with frontline newspaper exploitation of heroes such as sniper Vasiliy Zaitsev or ACE Lilya Litvyak. Indeed, Smirnova-Medvedeva's memoir was not even published until 1967, and its straight-forward and rather humble account of the unsuccessful battles for Sevastopol and Odessa contain no "superhuman" feats of heroism. The author downplays her own achievements, instead paying personal, and sometimes moving, tribute to her comrades. Thanks to the recent efforts of a Canadian Slavic Studies professor, K.J. Cottam, this obscure but fascinating memoir has been made available in English translation. It provides Western readers a rare eye-witness glimpse of the Soviet experience of World War ll -- what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.

Rating:
Summary: On the Road to Stalingrad:Memoirs of a Woman Machine Gunner
Review: This book provides a fascinating account of the wartime experiences of a female member of the Chapayev regiment. The translation is excellent. It gives a fascinating glimpse into the heroic effort of Soviet women who fought at the front. This book is an absolute treasure! I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: very good book
Review: This is a very good book. I read the whole thing on a flight to Russia. It is about a Russian woman who joined the army when Hitler attacked Ukraine. She fought in the famous regiment of Chapeyev. She was wounded, but returned to fight. This book shows how difficult was the war, when everybody was needed to fight. If you have interest in World War 2 you will like this auto-biogreaphy.

Rating:
Summary: A common soldier who happens to be a woman
Review: This is a very interesting autobiography of a woman soldier in the Red Army during World War 2. Many people do not know over million women fought in combat in the Soviet Union. I don't know why this book is called On the Road to Stalingrad, because it is not about the battle of Stalingrad. Zoya fought in Sevastopol to liberate the Ukraine. She was not special or a heroine, she was just doing her job, which was a Maxim Machegun operator. She was wounded and went back to the front. The end of the biography is very poignant as she describes what happened to all her comrades. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the War.

Rating:
Summary: Much Better Than the Title
Review: This is a well written account of actions in WWII. It is not just a 'gimick' of a story because the author was a woman. Man or woman, this book rates up there with all other good first person experiences in WWII. The story of the entrapment behind German lines of her team, and their methods of escape, is as intriquing as any mystery or adventure book. Buy this one if you like war stories, WWII, or want to learn more about the Russian/German battles.

Rating:
Summary: Much Better Than the Title
Review: This is a well written account of actions in WWII. It is not just a 'gimick' of a story because the author was a woman. Man or woman, this book rates up there with all other good first person experiences in WWII. The story of the entrapment behind German lines of her team, and their methods of escape, is as intriquing as any mystery or adventure book. Buy this one if you like war stories, WWII, or want to learn more about the Russian/German battles.

Rating:
Summary: Memories from a forgotten front
Review: You may be in for a surprise: not only Zoya Smirnova-Medvedeva (whose memories as a 19 years old volunteer with the 24th "Chapayev" Division of the Red Army details her involvement in the ultimately tragic defence of Odessa and Sevastopol in 1941 and 1942) didn't kill many Germans in her wartime career, but she spent much of the war - before being demobilised in 1944 after receiving a disabling wound - doing what most soldiers do: trying to save her own life while doing her own duty.

It's interesting to note how the most sincere memories of the Eastern Front (see for instance "In Deadly Combat", a superb German account of the life on the Baltic Front) tends, after all, to make WWII look like WWI. No dashing armoured assaults, no shining new technology: but trenches, long and tiresome marches, endless artillery and aerial strikes, hunger, cold and weariness. In Zoya's case you should add a not-so-subtle tendency of her comrades to be alternatively suspicious or patronising about her warlike qualities, and the difficulties of being a woman forced on a uneasy cohabitation with a lot of male recruits, fighting a defensive battle in definitely-not-triumphant phase of the war. Zoya tends (of course) to downplay the relation problem and emphasise the comradeship, but reading between the lines something becomes evident.

It may sound as downright depressing but, while "On The Road To Stalingrad" (another entry in the outstanding series of Russian wartime women memories edited by professor KJ Cottam) is at times truly grim , especially when dealing with the loss of human life so matter-of-factly, it's still a great reading, tempered by a detached, objective attitude and the usual Russian fatalistic humour. You really get the impression that Zoya's comrades are the same Russian soldier of Tolstoy's books- down to earth, rugged people with few illusion but an unlimited faith in friendship as a mean to survive every calamity.

As often happens in Soviet-era war literature, some truth become plain to the attentive reader: for instance, that the relationship between the Red Army and the population were (at least in 1942) less idyllic than what the official histories would make us believe. Also, bits on the occasional incompetence and simple cowardice on the Soviet sides are often hinted (even if balanced by many narratives of Soviet heroics, of course). And no, the Germans in this book aren't your average dupes. The biggest surprise (if you're not familiar with this type of literature) may come from "politics" department. Not only you'll not get much the tirades so often hammered on the reader's throat in the Soviet general's memories, but you'll hardly find any straightforward "political" note at all - except from the token patriotic bit on the defence of the Motherland against the invaders. My theory is that in the 60's (when most of these type of text was written) it had become much safer to avoid completely the topic rather than deal with it in the wrong way. Even so, the effect is, in my view, a bit unrealitic: even if is probable that Communism wasn't so popular among Red Army soldiers, the 40's weren't the 90's, and it's more likely that a percentage of the Red Army personnel had some kind of strong belief on the Soviet system. Otherwise, you'll get the same surreal feeling of those German war memories where everyone is politically agnostic or even anti-nazi, and you end up not understanding how Hitler got elected in first instance. Is "On The Road To Stalingrad" realistic? Yes, if you take in account the age when was written. It's a literary masterpiece? No, but rarely a war memory is a conventionally "good" reading. And as a document to a woman's view on a topical (although still badly documented) XX century event, "On The Road To Stalingrad" is a must read.