For The Motherland! For Stalin!

Boris Bogachev''s highly readable account of life as a young platoon commander during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 makes for a fascinating read.The son of a Soviet military commissar, Bogachev volunteered to fight as soon as reached the age of seventeen. Life in the Red Army was harsh, with food shortages, inadequate equipment and fear - not only of the well-armed enemy ahead, but also of th...