Russia's War

A History of the Soviet Effort: 1941-1945

By: Richard Overy PhD

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

The Russian war effort to defeat invading Axis powers, an effort that assembled the largest military force in recorded history and that cost the lives of more than twenty-five million Soviet soldiers and civilians, was the decisive factor for securing an Allied victory. Now with access to the wealth of film archives and interview material from Russia used to produce the ten-hour television documentary Russia's War, Richard Overy tackles the many persuasive questions surrounding this conflict. Was Stalin a military genius? Was the defense of Mother Russia a product of something greater than numbers of tanks and planes-of something deep within the Russian soul?

©1997 IBP Films Distribution, Ltd. (P)2022 Tantor

Well Written Explanation of USSR Victory in WWII

More detail than you normally get which gives you a particular insight into what the principals were thinking & why they acted the way they did during the war.

A gripping tale of incredible, consuming tragedy

Overy paints an amazing landscape of the 20th Century’s Eastern Colossus and the Second World War and its aftermath. It is a sweeping, bittersweet tale of onslaught and revenge, victory and annihilation, friend and foe.
If Nazism presented the West with a “Good vs Evil” struggle for the triumph of freedom and democracy, the Nazi-Soviet struggle defies such simple logic. The ordeal of the Soviet people is vividly captured in this bloody tale of struggle and defiance within a cauldron of conspiracy, coercion, and sheer human depravity. There are no winners, only victims and vanquished, tyrants and traitors and those soon to become traitors to the motherland. Deeply moving and simultaneously grippingly sad and maddeningly troubling.
Thoroughly enjoyed the experience and, dare say, the ordeal.