Soviet War

In the warm predawn darkness of June 22, 1941, three million men waited along a front hundreds of miles long, stretching from the Baltic coast of Poland to the Balkans. Ahead of them in the darkness lay the Soviet Union, its border guarded by millions of Red Army troops echeloned deep throughout the huge spaces of Russia.

Dying Echoes: Memoirs of the War 1914-1920 by Stanisław Kawczak was first published in Poland in 1936 (Milknące Echa: Wspomnienia z Wojny 1914-1920). It tells the story and experiences of a young Polish conscript in the Austrian army who fought during WWI wearing the Austrian uniform against the Russian army on the Eastern Front and the Italian army on the Southern Front. Kawczak began his military career as a corporal, and was promoted to officer cadet, lieutenant, and finally captain. From the beginning of the war his heart was in the struggle for Polish independence and the defeat of ...

George Koval was born in Iowa. In 1932, his parents, Russian Jews who had emigrated because of anti-Semitism, decided to return home to live out their socialist ideals. George, who was as committed to socialism as they were, went with them.

From a master of popular history, the lively, immersive story of the race to seize Berlin in the aftermath of World War II as it’s never been told before.

In Stalin’s Russia, when prison sentences stretched ten, fifteen, and twenty-five years, the future Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn found himself incarcerated in its genocidal “corrective” labor camps (the so-called Gulag of the Soviet Union). His crime: expressing anti-Stalinist opinions in a letter to a friend. A devout Communist at his arrest, condemned to be worked to death in the frozen wastelands of Russia, he underwent instead a profound psychological transformation, broke free of his Marxist ideology—and survived. This full biography of one of the most influential ...

In a damning, inspiring, and breathtaking narrative of what is likely to be a turning point for Europe—and the world—Guardian correspondent and New York Times bestselling author Luke Harding reports firsthand on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. When, just before dawn on February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin launched a series of brutal attacks, Harding was there, on the ground in Kyiv. But this senseless violence was met with astounding resilience—from, among others, the country’s embattled president—and the courage of a people prepared to risk everything to preserve their nation’s freedom.

This second volume of Kirill Moskalenko's memoir of his Great Patriotic War begins with the Battle of Kursk. Don't be put off by the first chapter. Moskalenko's Fortieth Army played a relatively minor role in the battle, and I believe he added a bit of unnecessary detail. There is a fairly good and cursory exposition on Voronezh Front operations during the battle in a verbatim report from General Vatutin, commander of Voronezh Front and Moskalenko's immediate superior. Moskalenko's small role at Kursk was not a function of Soviet Supreme Command's opinion of his abilities. The Germans ...

As World War II comes to a close, the United States and the Soviet Union emerge as the two greatest world powers on extreme opposites of the political spectrum. After the United States showed its hand with the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the Soviets refuse to be left behind. With communism sweeping the globe, the two nations begin a neck-and-neck competition to build even more destructive bombs and conquer the Space Race. In their battle for dominance, spy planes fly above, armed submarines swim deep below, and undercover agents meet in the dead of night.

MiGs Over Nevada (CIA Area 51 Chronicles – Book 4) By TD Barnes Captured Soviet fighters. Top-secret dogfights. The CIA’s covert air war at Area 51. With the retirement of the A-12 reconnaissance plane, Area 51 seemed destined for a quieter existence. But instead, it became the center of a groundbreaking intelligence operation that would transform U.S. aerial warfare forever. The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), in partnership with the CIA, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy, launched an unprecedented program to exploit captured Soviet MiG aircraft, revealing enemy capabilities and ...

The Normandy landings that took place on D-day involved by far the largest invasion fleet ever known. The scale of the undertaking was simply awesome. What followed them was some of the most cunning and ferocious fighting of the war, at times as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. As casualties mounted, so, too, did the tensions between the principal commanders on both sides. Meanwhile, French civilians caught in the middle of these battlefields or under Allied bombing endured terrible suffering.

The seeds of the Cold War were sown toward the end of World War II. During the war, the US and the Soviet Union were reluctant partners. But as is often the case in history, despite their differences, America and Soviet Russia had a common enemy that brought them together - Nazi Germany. But soon after Truman was elected president, American and Soviet relations began to go south. Before the war was over, disagreements arose over how the postwar world should be administered.

In December 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a speech about a conflict that had some leading figures in Britain and France, including Churchill himself, briefly discussing the idea of going to war with the Soviet Union, even though they were already fighting Adolf Hitler. Of course, war makes strange bedfellows, and one year later, Churchill would find himself allied with the Soviet Union against Germany and Finland. It’s an interesting saga, one with roots in imperial Russian history and the desire of the Finns to be free in their northern forests.

1985 was a summer of a lifetime for 16 Americans. At the height of the Cold War, an Athletes In Action-USA women's basketball team competed in the USSR against the greatest team ever, the vaunted Soviet Union National Team. The United States team also competed in Poland and West Germany. After suffering serious injuries to three frontline players against the mighty Soviets, the team was suddenly short in size and depth - but not heart. As they adjusted their style of play, they affectionately became known as The Smurfs. Based on Coach Greg Hayes' tour journal, Cold War Hoops is an ...

No nation is a stranger to war, but for Russians war is a central part of who they are. Their "motherland" has been the battlefield where some of the largest armies have clashed, the most savage battles have been fought, the highest death tolls paid. Having prevailed over Mongol hordes and vanquished Napoleon and Hitler, many Russians believe no other nation has sacrificed so much for the world.

For honoring his word to Kuznetsov, Hale finds himself caught in a web of unexpected consequences. To safeguard the future of Nea, Aina, and his unborn child, Hale embarks on a daring odyssey. A nearly impossible mission with long odds. It's a reckless gambit for redemption, where success holds the key to forgiveness. Can Hale navigate the treacherous terrain behind enemy lines and emerge victorious from the heart-pounding crucible of his audacious Raid On Russia?

Paul D'Anieri explores the dynamics within Ukraine, between Ukraine and Russia, and between Russia and the West, that emerged with the collapse of the Soviet Union and eventually led to war in 2014. Proceeding chronologically, this book shows how Ukraine's separation from Russia in 1991, at the time called a "civilized divorce", led to what many are now calling "a new Cold War".

Imagine a world where Maria, a girl from Leningrad, becomes a Silicon Valley tech whiz only to be swept into a whirlwind of international espionage. Meanwhile, Sasha, a young scientist in the heart of the USSR, navigates the peaks and valleys of innovation under the Soviet regime. Their lives, seemingly worlds apart, are bound by a game-changing technology. That’s the premise of “Nevsky Prospect,” a techno-spy thriller with an unexpected conclusion that leaves you questioning everything you thought you knew. Maria’s past hides a secret connection—a childhood friendship with ...

On a bitterly cold night in January 1945, a heavily armored train pulled into the station at Breslau in German occupied Poland. Here, ancient tapestries, priceless masterpieces, and three hundred tons of gold looted from the treasuries of conquered countries were loaded aboard. Just before dawn, laden with treasure, the train pulled away from the station heading west and disappeared from history. Deep in the primeval forests of the Eulengebirge Mountains of southwestern Poland, a secret Nazi fortress lies buried, untouched by the passage of time. Here, in a labyrinth of tunnels, Hitler’s ...

Fleeing the Turks who were conducting the Armenian Genocide the Armenian people were given an offer they couldn’t refuse from Russia or the Soviet Union if you will. The Russians would protect Armenia but the country had to fall inside the Soviet empire’s Iron Curtain whereas Armenia survived but disappeared into the Russian gulag for decades before the light of freedom was born again for Armenians.

In the summer of 1972, with a presidential crisis stirring in the United States and the cold war at a pivotal point, two men, the Soviet world chess champion Boris Spassky and his American challenger Bobby Fischer, met in the most notorious chess match of all time. Their showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, held the world spellbound for two months with reports of psychological warfare, ultimatums, political intrigue, cliffhangers, and farce to rival a Marx Brothers film.