Alexander Statiev

If you're looking for a paean to the triumphs of Soviet arms this is not the book for you, as the author (the son of a Red Army infantry officer) continually excoriates the Stalinist notion that vigor and political commitment could triumph over skill, and negate the need for specialists. While it's unrealistic to think that Moscow could have fielded mountain formations capable of matching the quality of the best German troops, Statiev demonstrates that there was a lot of low-hanging fruit to be plucked and, at the end of the day, too little was done too late to make a difference. Why this remains relevant is that Moscow has continued to find itself sending troops into mountain environments (starting with Afghanistan) with bad results, and it's only under the current regime that credible mountain formations have been deployed.… (meer)