Heroes Of The Soviet Union, 1941-1945 (Elite)

Rating:
Summary: Watch out for Wartime Communist Propaganda
Review: Although the Soviet Union awarded over 12,000 medals for valor in the Second World War, few of these men have even been heard of in the West. One suspects that even in Russia today, these heroes from sixty years ago are slipping into obscurity. Amateur historian Henry Sakaida is to be congratulated on bringing these men to light in Osprey Elite #111, Heroes of the Soviet Union 1941-45. Sakaida's narrative of the 30+ individuals that he profiles covers the gamut from aviators, to pilots, to snipers, to sailors, to tankers and infantrymen. Western readers can gain a good impression of the kind of troops that made up the Red Army in 1941-45 in these pages (at least the better ones). However, readers should be aware that the author accepts the Soviet-era claims about these men's exploits with few qualms and that the Soviet Government was more than willing to "manufacture" heroes as needed. While the majority of these men were probably genuine heroes, the exploits of some suggest imaginative citation-writing.

After a short introduction on "the Great Patriotic War," the author provides background on the Hero of the Soviet Union (HSU) award. Interestingly, the author provides data on medal's recipients by branch and ethnic group (e.g. 3 Chechens received the HSU). The author then provides capsule biographies of about 30 recipients of the HSU. The volume includes eight color plates: the Gold Star Medal and the Order of Lenin; sniper Ohlopkov; Lieutenant Gakhokidze at Sevastopol; spy Robert Klein; sailor Golubkov in Manchuria in 1945; pilot Maresyev; medic Kokorin; and partisan Kazei. The author provides no bibliography or notes on source material.

The author certainly provides some dramatic detail in these pages, such as the Soviet pilot who was captured and escaped in a commandeered Heinkel bomber or the naval commando Leonov. However, some of the Soviet-era claims appear pretty dubious. For example, the Soviets awarded the HSU to partisan leader Dmitri Medvedev, claiming that his unit had "killed more than 2,000 Germans, including 11 generals and high officials." Now, the German army in the Second World War had a ratio of perhaps 1 general officer for every 5,000 or more troops, so how likely is it that the Soviets would nail this many generals in one area? Not very likely. Furthermore, a number of citations claim that the recipient killed a German general, but not one is mentioned by name, date, or location, making crosschecking very difficult. Another "tale" that is very fishy is the account of the "Heroes of Taranovka Station," a small unit action near Kharkov in March 1943. This action was unusual because all 25 men in a Guards Rifle platoon received the HSU for this action, in which it was claimed that the platoon held off most of a German tank battalion and destroyed nearly half their vehicles. Taranovka Station is one of those fantasy worlds that Stalin used to like to make out of "dead heroes." As a former tanker, the idea that 25 infantrymen in wooden shacks, armed only with one light AT gun, a few mines and grenades could defeat a mixed force of German armor and mechanized infantry is just silly. Certainly the Guards platoon may have inflicted some damage, but the force ratio was just too unbalanced to be credible. Noticeably, the author avoids commenting on some of the more questionable claims - it appears that he might be concerned about offending some of his hosts.

This volume on the HSU goes well with other Osprey volumes on the Medal of Honor and Knights Cross winners (hopefully they will have one on the Victoria Cross as well), but the volumes from the totalitarian side of the street seem tinged with elements of wartime propaganda and hero creation. Readers from modern democracies should appreciate the sacrifices made by the Red Army in the Second World War (well, not maybe those sacrifices against the Poles or Finns in 1939) - it was the Red Army that did the most to defeat Nazi Germany - but should remain cognizant of the imperatives of Stalin's version of communism that underlay this cult of the hero.