Stalin's Folly: The Tragic First Ten Days of World War II on the Eastern Front

If your looking at this book you probably already have an interest in WWII, Russia, Stalin, or the Eastern Front. If you can answer yes to any of these things, you will love this book. Of course, it is written predominately from the Russian point of view, otherwise it would just be called The Tragic First Ten Days Of World War II On The Eastern Front. But since this book is about "Stalin's Folly" it is natural to assume this is about Russia. This book is genuinely entertaining. It turns the historical information into a truly human drama. The figures are brought to life in a way that it easily identifiable. The book sometimes digresses from the matter at hand to individual stories, of heroism, despair, and suffering. I found this greatly entertaining and these individual stories of the common person acted as a kind of "intermission" a way to gather your thoughts and soak up the information. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in World WarII on the Eastern Front, or anyone genuinely interested in entertaining historical drama.

This was a really good book. It was easy to read - actually it was hard to put down. It was informative and I liked that the author said what he wanted to say and then stopped - he didn't drone on for an additional hundred pages. He doesn't cover all the details, just the essential ones. I particularly thought he did a good job describing the effects of the communist system on the Russian generals - how the purges caused them to sacrifice many divisions to save themselves from being purged.

Splendid book, I had to stop reading this book often because I could not read the suffering of the heroic Russian people, Men, women and children, murdered cruelly by the German killers. The unfortunate Russian people had that to fight in two fronts, against the German killers who wanted to exterminate it and against his tyrants chiefs, the communists, and fought very well, exceptionally well. Unfortunately, even today, the comprehension of the difference between Russia and the communism has not been obtained, and the negative news of Russia is praised and the positive news is silenced. Recently an oligarch exiled in London, after stealing public money and from the citizens of Russia, it has been allowed to do declarations saying that it was preparing a military coup against Putin. Would England allow these declarations against the United States or France? What must think the Russians of the countries who give asylum to these delinquents and allow them to be so aggressive with Russia? Not a country suffered as Russia suffered and the reward of the western world when it get the democracy is cut it in pieces for the oil and for make it a more weak country. Of course USA is the principal guilty but the UE also. The natural consequence is that Russia see more himself and to the East. and remember that Talleyrand said " Russia is never so weak or so strong as she seems". I repit, a splendid book that lights a inicial period of war always forgotten and from a russian point of view that take account many small histories that the foreign historiers usually don' t write about. The suffering of the Russian normal citizens was beyond our western comprehension and, sadly, the understanding of them still continue very, very low. Even now with a depression deeper that that of the United States in the 30s, not any country helps to the poor, orphans or elders of Russia, leaving them his luck, there has been no Plan Marshall, not a cent of his debt with other countries has been excused to him . Strange form to help a country. This book is a good light about the suffering of Russia .

This is an excellent work, well-written, and well-edited. The author focuses on personalities and events and incidents rather than attempt a general or technical narrative. This approach works as history, as he has done his research well, but has the added benefit of making the book read very fast, almost at novel pace. His conclusions, while not groundbreaking, are dead on and need be repeated to undo the misinformation of the last sixty-plus years. To repeat, the German invasion of the East can be classified as a preventitive first strike at least as logically as it can be called a colonial war of conquest. Barbarossa was indeed both. That Pleshakov makes this clear in such a concise fashion is a great service to the history of WWII. Kudos and I eagerly await his next work!

An excellent source for the first few weeks of the War on the Eastern Front. A few minor mistakes here and there (like saying 35,000 officers were killed in the purges, when in fact 35,000 were arrested) but overall it is an invaluable addition to the literature on the time period and events it describes. At times hour by hour accounts of what was going on, excellent descriptions about the problems units had in terms of communications with their superiors and subordinates as well as the devastation suffered by front line units and the useless counter-attacks and conflicting orders being sent out. Well worth the read.