Why Stalin's Soldiers Fought

The Red Army's Military Effectiveness in World War II

Modern War Studies

by Roger R. Reese

Sales Date: April 28, 2011

408 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

Hardcover
9780700617760
Published: April 2011

$45.00

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Inept leadership, inefficient campaigning, and enormous losses would seem to spell military disaster. Yet despite these factors, the Soviet Union won its war against Nazi Germany thanks to what Roger Reese calls its “military effectiveness”: its ability to put troops in the field even after previous forces had been decimated.

Reese probes the human dimension of the Red Army in World War II through a close analysis of soldiers’ experiences and attitudes concerning mobilization, motivation, and morale. In doing so, he illuminates the Soviets’ remarkable ability to recruit and retain soldiers, revealing why so many were willing to fight in the service of a repressive regime—and how that service was crucial to the army’s military effectiveness. He examines the various forms of voluntarism and motivations to serve-including the influences of patriotism and Soviet ideology-and shows that many fought simply out of loyalty to the idea of historic Russia and hatred for the invading Germans. He also considers the role of political officers within the ranks, the importance of commanders who could inspire their troops, the bonds of allegiance forged within small units, and persistent fears of Stalin’s secret police.

Brimming with fresh insights, Reese’s study shows how the Red Army’s effectiveness in the Great Patriotic War was foreshadowed by its performance in the Winter War against Finland and offers the first direct comparison between the two, delving into specific issues such as casualties, tactics, leadership, morale, and surrender. Reese also presents a new analysis of Soviet troops captured during the early war years and how those captures tapped into Stalin’s paranoia over his troops’ loyalties. He provides a distinctive look at the motivations and experiences of Soviet women soldiers and their impact on the Red Army’s ability to wage war.

Ultimately, Reese puts a human face on the often anonymous Soviet soldiers to show that their patriotism was real, even if not a direct endorsement of the Stalinist system, and had much to do with the Red Army’s ability to defeat the most powerful army the world had ever seen.

"... what is undoubtedly the case is that Reese’s book is unsurpassed in its portrayal of the men and women who fought in the Red Army and as such is a major contribution to the historiography of World War II. It will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand how the Soviet Union was able to survive devastating invasion by the greatest military power in the world and play the leading role in its destruction."—Slavic Review
"Reese’s nuanced look at Red Army motivation through the lens of class, nationality, and gender makes this an indispensable work to understanding Soviet military success in the eastern front, but also Soviet society under Stalin."—Army History
"A significant addition to the growing number of works on Soviet soldiers’ experiences in the Second World War."—Historian
"Drawing upon newly available documents and an extensive body of interviews, letters, diaries, and memoirs by veterans, Prof. Reese (Texas A&M) gives us a new and different look at the roots of the success of the Red Army in the ‘Great Patriotic War.’ . . . A ground-breaking study necessary for students of the Eastern Front and useful for anyone interested in soldiers at war."—NYMAS Review
"A masterful work of deduction and analysis, which should stand as one of the most authoritative texts on the Red Army in the Second World War."—War in History
"The Red Army’s military effectiveness in World War Two can only be explained by beginning to understand the motivations of individual soldiers at foxhole-level. This is the starting premise of Roger R. Reese’s excellent study of the Red Army’s performance in World War Two. Utilizing a wealth of archival material and personal testimony, in the form of soldiers letters, diaries, memoirs and oral testimony, Reese brings alive the complex web of motivations Soviet citizens had for fighting, and continuing to fight, in the face of enormous casualties, horrific conditions and crushing defeats."—Slavonic and East European Review
"Why Stalin’s Soldiers Fought makes an excellent contribution to the literature about the Soviet peoples response to World War II and Stalinism.
Simplistic notions about glorious patriotism or pervasive disloyalty are unhelpful. Reese instead introduces a variety of human motivations, emotions, and responses to the war and to the regime."—Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"An excellent analysis, which takes nothing for granted and provides a wealth of hitherto little known evidence."—The Russian Review
“Encyclopedic in scope, Why Stalin’s Soldiers Fought solidifies Reese’s reputation as one of the foremost scholars on the social history of the Red Army in both peace and war. Comprehensive, thoughtful, and perceptive, it will likely stand as a classic in its genre for years to come.”—David M. Glantz, author of The Stalingrad Trilogy
“Fresh, challenging, provocatively argued, and extensively researched, this is a major contribution to our understanding of the Red Army.”—Reina Pennington, author of Wings, Women, and War: Soviet Airwomen in World War II Combat
“Reese’s best book yet.”—Mark von Hagen, author of Soldiers in the Proletarian Dictatorship