The Road to Berlin (177 page)

There is clearly a case for some separate identification of East European (as opposed to Soviet) sources, with some considerable quantity of Polish material worthy of notice. I have prefaced each of these small collections with one main bibliographical reference, such as the Yugoslav volume
Bibliografia o ratu i revoluciji
… , intended to cover a much wider spectrum of publications. Recondite though some of this may seem, there are important items to be uncovered, such as the heavy losses sustained by the Rumanian Army in its operations conducted on the side of the Red Army after 1944.

Non-Soviet research and documentary publication on the Soviet-German war is already rich and grows richer with each year, though once again there is much recompense in turning to wartime publications, for example, Alexander Werth’s
tour de force, The Year of Stalingrad
, or that bitter but shrewd book by Curzio Malaparte,
The Volga Rises in Europe
, which remarks that ‘the supreme industrial creation of Soviet Russia is her Army’, a thesis advanced with macabre battlefield evidence:

Look closely at these dead, these Tartar dead, these Russian dead. They are new corpses … just delivered from the great factory of the
pyatiletka
. See how bright their eyes are. Observe their low foreheads, their thick lips. Peasants, are they? Workers? Yes, they are workers—specialists,
udarniki
.… They typify a new race, a tough race, these corpses of workers killed in an industrial accident.

Malaparte also had caustic words for those who expected (as many did) an easy and imminent collapse of the system. Indeed, one of the main Soviet charges is that of collusion on the part of the Western powers in German plans for an attack on the USSR, or at least a passive attitude in the face of these deep-laid German designs, hence the importance of non-Soviet memoirs (and official documents) in delineating the circumstances of the wartime alliance fashioned with the Soviet Union. Non-Soviet sources are also mandatory in dealing with the whole gigantic effort involved in Lend-Lease and Allied aid to wartime Russia.

Of necessity, German memoir material, documentary publication and military analysis must loom large in any listing of essential references. The memoirs of senior German commanders—Guderian, von Manstein and their fellows—are indispensable, while the
series
Die Wehrmacht im Kampf
supplies a combination of memoir with military records; formal campaign histories are not lacking, in the style of
Der Feldzug gegen Sowjetrussland
by Alfred Philippi and Ferdinand Heim, as well as the publications in the series
Studien und Dokumente zur Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges
. There is also the ‘historical-memoir’ on the lines of Heinz Schroter’s
Stalingrad
(based on his wartime compilation) and so towards evaluations of tactical aspects, exemplified in General Middeldorf’s study,
Taktik im Russlandfeldzug
. Suffice it to say that German historiography is virtually a subject in itself, one which demands its own specialization and particular competences; what I have tried to represent here is demonstrably merely the tip of a vast and impressive iceberg. Perhaps the most pertinent proof of the relevance and the rigour of these publications is the assiduous attention which Soviet military specialists and historians pay to them (and, additionally, the East German military-historical journal,
Militär Geschichte.)

All this merely reinforces my original submission that any claim to a comprehensive, much less exhaustive, catalogue of sources and materials would merely border on the fatuous. Perhaps the best that can be managed is to register those prime materials which directly illuminate the command decisions, the operational narrative and the war-supporting activities which kept mighty armies in the field for month after agonizing month. Little wonder that such a titanic conflict continues to leave behind it a great trail of records, recollection, analysis, self-justification, vainglorious boast, fruitless railing, memories steeped in pain—and, in some rare instances, even remorse.

Contents of Bibliography

I. SOVIET MATERIALS

1. Bibliographies (arranged chronologically)

Tolstikhinaya, A.I. (ed.),
Velikaya Otechestvennaya voina Sovetskovo naroda
(Moscow: Gos. bibl.-bibliograf. izd. 1942). The first bibliographical compilation.

Kaufman, I.M.
et al., Velikaya Otechestvennaya voina
. Ukazatel. literatury. Vyp. 1–10. (Moscow: Lenin Library 1943–6).

Kumanev, G.A.,
Velikaya Otechestvennaya voina Sovetskovo Soyuza (1941–1945)
(Moscow: Acad. Nauk 1960). Works published 1946–59.

Istoriya Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny Sovetskovo Soyuza 1941–1945
(Moscow: Voenizdat 1965), vol. 6. See pp. 403–604 for sources/bibliographies, Soviet and non-Soviet.

Velikaya Otechestvennaya voina Sovetskovo Soyuza (1941–1945 gg.)
Rekomendatelnyi ukazatel literatury (Moscow: Kniga 1965).

Grylev, A., ‘Sovetskaya voennaya istoriografiya v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny i poslevoennyi period’,
Voenno-istoricheskii Zhurnal
, 1968(1), pp. 90–100 and (3), pp. 77–89. (Both parts of this article are important, especially 1968(1), an essential reference for wartime publications.)

Geroi Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny
. Stranitsy biografii. Rekomendatelnyi ukazatel’ … (Moscow: Kniga 1970).

(Lenin Library)
Velikii Podvig
. Rekomendatelnyi ukazatel’ … (Moscow: Kniga 1970).

Aksenova, N.A. and Vasileva, M.V.,
Soldaty Dzerzhinskovo Soyuz beregut. Rekom. ukazatel … o chekistakh
(Moscow: Kniga 1972).

Dokuchayev, G.A.,
Sibir v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny
(Novosibirsk, Akad. Nauk 1972). Books published 1941–71; 600 copies printed of this bibliography, photo-offset.

K 30-letiyu velikoi pobedy
. Ukazatel osnovnoi literatory 1973–1975. (Moscow: Akad. Nauk 1975). Entries and index; 1,000 copies of this bibliography printed, photo-offset.

Tula i oblast v Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine
. Bibliograficheskii ukazatel … (Tula: Tul. obl., k-ka 1975).

(Lenin Library)
Velikaya Pobeda
. Rekomendatelnyi ukazatel’ … (Moscow: Kniga 1975).

Amurtsy v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny
. Rekomendatelnyi ukazatel … (Blagoveshchensk: Amur Oblast Library 1975).

Bashkiriya v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny (1941–1945 gg.)
Bibliograficheskii ukazatel (Ufa: Bashkir Lib. 1975).

Sibir v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny (iyun 1941–sentyabr 1945)
. Bibliograficheskii ukazatel (Novosibirsk: Akad. Nauk 1976). 800 copies printed of this bibliography, photo-offset.

Problems of the Contemporary World (38)
, ‘Soviet Studies on the Second World War’ (Moscow: Acad. Sciences 1976). (In English.)

Dyuzhev, Yu.I.,
Velikaya Otechestvennaya voina na severe v sovetskoi literature
(Petrozavodsk: Kareliya 1976). Materials published 1941–72.

Goldas, M.,
Tarybine Armija-Tarybu lietuvos isvaduotoja
(Vilnius: LTSR Valst.b-ka. 1976).

Puce, O., Smatova, T. and Valdmane, I.,
Latviesu tautas cina lielaja tevijas kara 1941–1945
(Riga: State Library 1976).

Collective authorship,
O voine, o tovarishchakh, o sebe
. Annotirovannyi ukazatel’ voennomemuarnoi literatory (1941–1977 gg.) (Moscow: Voenizdat 1977). This is an important and immensely useful compilation on memoir material, plus
reviews
of books and articles. (2nd edn 1982.)

(Lenin Library: Military Section)
Vooruzhennye sily SSSR na strazhe Rodiny
(Moscow: Kniga 1977). See pp. 45–100.

Collective authorship,
Istoriya SSSR. Ukazatel’ Sovetskoi literatury za 1917–1967 gg
. Tom III, Vypusk 4:
SSSR v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny (iyun 1941–sentyabr 1945 g.). Ukazatel Sovetskoi literatury za 1941–1967 gg
. (Moscow: Nauka 1977), with supplement (subject and author index).