Stalin's Generals

Rating:
Summary: Revealing short bios of various Soviet Generals
Review: This is an interesting book, one of a series which collects short biographies of various generals from a particular nation. They also did one for Britain and one for Germany---as far as I know that was as far as they got. This book collects a large number of these short pieces, some only a few pages long, and some as long as 20 pages. They're by various individuals, from names that were familiar to me (David Glantz, John Erikson, Dmitri Volkogonov) to those that weren't so familiar (Victor Anfilov, Richard Woff, etc.). Each of these bios is interesting in its own right, the main theme being that most of the Soviet army commanders from the World War II era weren't very good strategists. Stalin killed off most of the better commanders during the purges.

There are some interesting vignettes here. Volkogonov, for instance, is particularly scathing when writing about Voroshilov, while Anfilov pretty much falls all over himself praising Zhukov. Various of the other bios are interesting and more or less objective. Given that this is a collection of essays by different people, there's bound to be some variation. One thing is constant, though. None of the authors has much use for Stalin himself.

There are 26 pieces here, the last one (titled Stalin's Ghosts) covering the victims of the purges (other than Tukhachevsky, who gets his own piece) and those killed in combat during the war. There's a lot of information here, and much of it is stuff you can't find anywhere else, at least in English. On that note alone, I would recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: The best sketches of Soviet Generals in WWII
Review: This is simply a wonderful complete account of the men who served Stalin in the 'great Patriotic War'. These men, from various diverse backgrounds, served under a vicious tyrant and yet they were able to propel their nation to victory. Obviously men like Zhukov figure prominently here. He helped lead the defense of Leningrad, Stalingrad and was at the forefront of Operation Mars and the capture of Berlin.

These excellent character sketches apply to almost every high ranking Soviet general and some of the more obscure. The commanders of the Air Force and Navy are included as are sketches of Stalin's key staff officers of 'Stavka'. Sketches are also made of the 'might have been's' the 'ghosts' of Stalin's army which was the officer class Stalin eliminated in the 1930s. These men were persecuted mostly because of their connection to the revolution and/or Trotsky. These men, who Stalin brutally murdered, were the cream of the Soviet military and had been responsible for fashioning the Soviet army into a modern technological army and fighting not only the interventionists but also Poland.

This is must read for anyone concerned with World War Two, Stalin, or the Soviet Military system. This is a wonderful book and biographical sketches like these are almost impossible for find elsewhere(with the exception of Zhukov who everyone is familiar with). Of special interest are the portions written by Dmitri Volkogonov, whose legendary biographies of Stalin, Lenin and Trotsky have been eye opening best sellers in the USA and Russia.

---Seth J. Frantzman November 17 2003

Rating:
Summary: The best sketches of Soviet Generals in WWII
Review: This is simply a wonderful complete account of the men who served Stalin in the `great Patriotic War'. These men, from various diverse backgrounds, served under a vicious tyrant and yet they were able to propel their nation to victory. Obviously men like Zhukov figure prominently here. He helped lead the defense of Leningrad, Stalingrad and was at the forefront of Operation Mars and the capture of Berlin.

These excellent character sketches apply to almost every high ranking Soviet general and some of the more obscure. The commanders of the Air Force and Navy are included as are sketches of Stalin's key staff officers of `Stavka'. Sketches are also made of the `might have been's' the `ghosts' of Stalin's army which was the officer class Stalin eliminated in the 1930s. These men were persecuted mostly because of their connection to the revolution and/or Trotsky. These men, who Stalin brutally murdered, were the cream of the Soviet military and had been responsible for fashioning the Soviet army into a modern technological army and fighting not only the interventionists but also Poland.

This is must read for anyone concerned with World War Two, Stalin, or the Soviet Military system. This is a wonderful book and biographical sketches like these are almost impossible for find elsewhere(with the exception of Zhukov who everyone is familiar with). Of special interest are the portions written by Dmitri Volkogonov, whose legendary biographies of Stalin, Lenin and Trotsky have been eye opening best sellers in the USA and Russia.

---Seth J. Frantzman November 17 2003

Rating:
Summary: Red Army's top generals (but where's Chernyakovsky)?
Review: While WWII studies have seen a lot of ink devoted to most of Wehrmacht top brass, the same cannot be said for the Soviet war leadership. Reasons have been mixed: lack of material, blind faith on the surmise (popular until mid-70's) that the only Soviet great commander had been Zhukov, and most of the rest had been (at best) a bunch of reliable robots, Cold War cultural policies. So this (a book born out of the sudden flow of material of post-Soviet era) is another "one-of-a-kind", as far as I know is the only collection of monographs dedicated to the wartime Soviet Generals, at least if you don't want to go back to such venerable stuff as Erickson's "The Soviet High Command", that anyway didn't deal with the personal details of each commander. I bought it with some trepidation, but I shouldn't have worried: "Stalin's General" is historiography at his best.

The array of contributor is impressive - John Erickson, Geoffrey Jukes, David Glantz, Richard Woff, Victor Anfilov and many others: what could you ask for more? Each contribution (the list is strictly alphabetical) deals with one name, usually mixing biographical data with some interesting assessment on the relative ability (or inability) of the subject. Some of the portraits are extraordinarily vivid - for instance, Konev as the competitive bastard, Rokossovsky as the compassionate, self restrained but gifted commander, Shaposhnikov as the old-school General Staff officer getting surprisingly well along with Stalin, Antonov and Vasilevsky as the brainy war managers (a la Nimitz), Vatutin and Rybalko as the impetuous field commanders, Golikov as the enigmatic "political" general, Boldin as epitome of mediocrity, Budenny as the man hopelessly out of sync with its times, Batov as the talented, professional Army officer who could have received much more recognition, had he fought with a Western power. And the list could continue - the book collect 26 monographs, plus a final article on the Soviet general fallen during (or immediately after) the war

The articles on Vlasov and Tuchachevksy stands out of the whole pack. The first in negative: Catherine Andreyev portrait of the ex-Soviet General who defected to the Germans has more to do with the then (1993) current Russian political situation than with serious research. On the reverse, Shimon Naveh's story on Tuchachevksy - deep operation lead theorist's, executed by Stalin in 1937 for an alleged "anti Soviet" plot - is simply terrific.

And now comes my only real gripe - where's Chernyakovsky? Red Army youngest "front" commander, and possibly the most talented Red Army field general, killed in action in East Prussia in 1945 after a meteoric and much deserved rise - I just can't believe it that Harold Shukman, book's editor, has just forgotten to include him. I mean, why Moskalenko (a rather undistinguished general) yes and Chernyakovsky no? It's true that you can't have everything in life...