Among their “new books” A&L Daily notes I Saw It (Ya Eto Videl), reviewed by Kevin O’Flynn in the Moscow Times. Two Izvestia reporters, Anatoly Danilevich and Ella Maximova, edit letters sent to the newspaper from soldiers and their families; “published earlier this year to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.”
“In a searing new book, Soviet veterans challenge the official mythology of World War II.” Obviously, these reinforce points made in various discussions here. O’Flynn observes
Svetlana Alexievich — a Belarussian writer who has herself collected eyewitness accounts of the atrocities of the war — writes in her foreword that the book is not about extraordinary heroes, but about the “proletariat of the war.” Still, to a Western reader with little knowledge of the brutalities of the eastern front, many of the letters seem extraordinarily heroic.
Ginny, thanks. I saw this, and I sent an email to University Press of Kansas, which publishes David Glantz’s books on the Russian military in World War II. I asked them to produce a translation. Might as well ask, right?
While we are wating for this to be translated into English, you can go to this page of memoirs from Russian Battlefield. Some incredible stuff here.