The monumental battles of World War II's Eastern Front—Moscow; Stalingrad; Kursk—are etched into the historical record. But there is another; hidden history of that war that has too often been ignored in official accounts. Boris Gorbachevsky was a junior officer in the 31st Army who first saw front-line duty as a rifleman in the 30th Army. Through the Maelstrom recounts his three harrowing years on some of the war's grimmest but forgotten battlefields: the campaign for Rzhev; the bloody struggle to retake Belorussia; and the bitter final fighting in East Prussia. As he traces his experiences from his initial training; through the maelstrom; to final victory; he provides one of the richest and most detailed memoirs of life and warfare on the Eastern Front. Gorbachevsky's panoramic account takes us from infantry specialist school to the front lines to rear services areas and his whirlwind romances in wartime Moscow. He recalls the shriek of Katiusha rockets flying overhead toward the enemy and the unforgettable howl of Stukas divebombing Soviet tanks. And he conveys horrors of brutal fighting not recorded previously in English; including his own participation in a human wave assault that decimated his regiment at Rzhev; with piles of corpses growing the closer they got to the German trenches. Gorbachevsky also records the sufferings of the starving citizens of Leningrad; the savage execution of a Russian scout who turned in false information; the killing of an innocent German trying to welcome the Soviet troops; and a chilling campfire discussion by four Russian soldiers as they compared notes about the women they'd raped. His memoir brims with rich descriptions of daily army life; the challenges of maintaining morale; and relationships between soldiers. It also includes candid exposés of the many problems the Red Army faced: the influence of political officers; the stubbornness of senior commanders; the attrition through desertions; and the initial months of occupation in postwar Germany. Through the Maelstrom features the swiftly moving narrative and rich dialogue associated with the grand style of great Russian literature. Ultimately; it provides a fitting and final testament to soldiers who fought and died in anonymity.
#383189 in Books University Press of Kansas 1998-04-24Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.34 x .93 x 6.14l; 1.39 #File Name: 0700610294446 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. GreatBy Gere J. MinnickArrived as advertised. Great transaction0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Fun to read and yet amazingly insightfulBy LoveshistoryFun to read and yet amazingly insightful. Sheds light on the entire history of the Great Plains and western expansion.3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Superb HistoryBy Jon ThomasI greatly enjoyed this history of western Kansas; eastern Colorado; southern Nebraska and adjacent areas. The author does a fine job of integrating technological; economic; and environmental effects upon the American Indians that inhabited those areas.The effect of the Colorado Gold Rush upon those Indians is a principal focus of the book. The Euro-American tribe meets the Great Plains Indian tribes. The effect; as we all know very well; was not pretty. The invasion of North America was truly a catastrophe for the American Indians as is well documented in countless other books.What makes this book extremely interesting to me--in addition to being set in a part of the country; central/western Kansas; that I was born and raised in--is how it took a more sophisticated and less sentimental look at white and Indian relationships.Until the plains Indians got their hands on the horses of the Europeans; they lived a pretty ecologically limited life. They could not fully take advantage of the wealth of the grassland prairies--and the buffalo that inhabited it. They needed the horse to more ably hunt the buffalo. Prior to that; they were riparian gardeners and hunters afoot on the surrounding prairie. Once they had the horse; they could greatly expand their populations and territories. Caloric consumption surely sky rocketed. The Plains Indian horse based buffalo hunting culture was an historical exception. It only lasted for around 100 years before it was brought to a sudden end by the US Army; the white ranchers and farmers; and the general Euro-American settling of the plains.The horse was also a mixed blessing. Like the white man's firearms.... Both increased the level of violence and warfare on the plains. The horse gave tribes better mobility and something of great value to steal from other competing tribes. The warfare stakes became higher in terms of horses; land; and access to buffalo. The tribes that engaged in this way of life had ecological limits to their lifestyle. They had to maintain large horse herds to support their hunting lifestyle. That was not a problem during the good weather. But in the winter time; the only protection for the tribes and their horses on the plains were the wooded creeks and rivers. The large horse herds and their need for feed in the wintertime resulted in the degradation of the riparian woods. This was especially a difficult problem for the more northerly tribes with their intense winters. Eventually; even without the Euro-American invasion; the plains tribes would have faced environmental crises and limits to their growth and expansion. It was a zero sum game in terms of resources--or rather more accurately; a negative sum game in the long run with the continuing degradation of the wooded riparian areas on the plains. Without the whites invading; Indian plains warfare amongst the tribes would probably have gotten more bloody and intense resulting in the successful tribes monopolizing the resources of the plains.Then again; without the horse;the introduction of firearms and consumer goods; and pressures from Eastern Indians forced west by the Euro-American invasion; things probably would have remained fairly static for the plains tribes. However; since their resources would be a lot fewer without access to the horse; they would be far fewer in number and probably substantially poorer in a material sense.The author deals at some length about the Indians dependency on European goods. It is somewhat comforting to know that consumerism is a universal human condition; not just a 20th and 21rst century Western mindset. Humans desire "things" or "goods". Sometimes those goods nurture and promote human life--sometimes they simply degrade people and cultures. I was rather charmed by the fierce Kiowa chief's; Satanta; love of his Euro-American manufactured French horn and small table used for his household. Satanta was a fierce hater of the whites--but he loved those goods. Not an uncommon predicament for the American Indian.In the long run; it seems that all cultures use military force to take and hold territory. The tribes bloodily fought each other over the resources of the plains prior to the coming of the whites. And they certainly bloodily fought their great enemy; the whites; when they made their entrance on the plains. Not much room for pacifists in the story of human nations and countries--admirable as the pacifists' spirituality; religion; and philosophy may be. Unfortunately; Americans may live to see the day when they; too; will be fighting to defend their resources from hungrier--and possibly stronger--other tribes and nations. At one time the conqueror; the next moment the defeated. The endless--or at least seemingly so--cycle of history.
