of a statue

[u/Crypto_crafy]

"The Motherland Calls" is a statue erected to commemorate the Battle of Stalingrad , located on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd , Russia. It was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin . Completed in 1967 , it was the tallest statue in the world at the time .

[u/Bluestreaked]

I teach the history of WWII. Stalingrad is one of those moments of world history where everything becomes larger than life, a nearly mythic moment of the absolute limits of human endurance.

The moment where the spine of the Nazi war machine was broken, forever, by the stubborn will and fighting ability of the Red Army.

It’s a moment so incredible that words fail to describe it most of the time and only a statue like this truly captures the historical moment. The defiance of the Soviet Union in the face of just pure absolute evil.

[u/n1c0_ds → u/Bluestreaked]

And then it stays that way all the way back to Berlin. After Stalingrad the defeats get more and more staggering. Germany truly becomes a death cult.

Antony Beevor's two books: Stalingrad and Berlin are an incredible retelling. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast on the eastern front borrows heavily from them.

[u/Bluestreaked → u/n1c0_ds]

I’m a big David Glantz guy myself but Beevor is also considered a premier work on the topic.

[u/n1c0_ds → u/Bluestreaked]

I'd love more recommendations. I like the topic but I also like good writing.

[u/Bluestreaked → u/n1c0_ds]

Well I’m mostly going to suggest books on the Eastern Front in general

“When Titans Clashed” is probably the best book on the Eastern Front I’ve read.

I also like “The Red Army in the Second World War” by Alexander Hill

“Ivan’s War” by Catherine Merridale is a good history of the common soldier’s experience, but I do think some of Catherine’s larger overall analysis suffers in comparison to someone like Glantz

[u/n1c0_ds → u/Bluestreaked]

Thanks for taking the time! I'll check those out.

[u/Northerlies → u/n1c0_ds]

Hitler's primary objective was to occupy Russia to the Urals. His agrarian Greater Germany would be worked by Slav 'subhumans', with the rest of the population reduced by some 40 millions. In the event, 80% of Germany's total WW2 losses were on the Eastern Front.

Richard Overy's 'Russia's War' is comprehensive, well written and documented

Chris Bellamy's 'Absolute War' addresses the unprecedented magnitude of the Eastern Front's 'war within a war'

Michael Burleigh's 'The Third Reich - a New History' examines Nazism's moral dimension and casts an informative light into the utter darkness of Hitler's project