Reddit reviews The 900 Days: The Siege Of Leningrad

Take a few hours and read 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad.

It's worth it.

Part II:

For Stalingrad/Leningrad:

STALINGRAD: How the Red Army Survived the German Onslaught

Leningrad: State of Siege

Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad

To the Gates of Stalingrad: Soviet-German Combat Operations, April-August 1942

Armageddon in Stalingrad: September-November 1942

Stopped at Stalingrad: The Luftwaffe and Hitler's Defeat in the East, 1942-1943

The 900 Days: The Siege Of Leningrad

Kursk:

The Battle of Kursk

Demolishing the Myth: The Tank Battle at Prokhorovka, Kursk, July 1943: An Operational Narrative


Air War:

Barbarossa: The Air Battle July-December 1941

Stalingrad: The Air Battle: 1942-January 1943

Kursk: The Air Battle, July 1943

Bagration to Berlin: The Final Air Battles in the East 1944-1945

Black Cross/Red Star : Vol. 1, Operation Barbarossa 1941

Black Cross / Red Star: The Air War Over The Eastern Front, Vol. 2 - Resurgence: January - June 1942

Black Cross Red Star: The Air War Over the Eastern Front Volume 3


German Army:

War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II

Hitler's Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich

The Myth of the Eastern Front: The Nazi-Soviet War in American Popular Culture

The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality

The Unknown Eastern Front: The Wehrmacht and Hitler's Foreign Soldiers

Death of the Wehrmacht: The German Campaigns of 1942

The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943

Partisans:

Defiance

Stalin's Guerrillas: Soviet Partisans in World War II

Holocaust/Genocide:

Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine under Nazi Rule

Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine

Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine

The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization

The Holocaust in the Soviet Union

I've heard great things about 900 Days.

When I say they had a pretty good idea, I'm not implying that this was from experience, rather that they were more likely to have been aware of the realities of the awfulness of the eastern front due to the lack of cold war attitudes that were prevalent in the west. When I was a kid, the history books over here didn't want to portray the USSR as a victim.

Since the USSR dissolved, things are a bit more objective. And even before then, some of us did go out and find books that were more accurate than say, the works of 'Sven Hassel' which when I was younger, were some of the only first-hand (at least the first 2 books) accounts published in English. Apart from Harrison Salisbury's account of the Siege of Leningrad, it's difficult to think of a book about the eastern front that was written by Russian eye-witnesses and then translated into English before the collapse of the USSR. In more recent years, English speaking historians have been making a point of getting interviews with the few remaining eye witnesses. Part of the problem in this is, as you point out, that for many of the instances, there were no survivors to give an account.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make, was that it is possible for people to know how grim a series of events was, without having to have experienced it first-hand, as long as they've access to accounts from those who did get direct experience, like your great grandpa. And some of the more recent western authors have been putting the record straight, so some of us do have more of an idea than would have been the case a couple of decades ago.

I'll try and get a copy of When Titans Clashed, cheers for the reccomendation. By way of return, can I suggest Catherine Merridale's Ivan's war.

For Leningrad stuff, also of interest might be an online copy of Glantz's 900 Days, but I'd also say Salisbury's The 900 days is well worth a read.

The 900 Days: The Siege Of Leningrad by Harrison Salisbury. This was one of the most compelling history books I've ever read. Beautifully written.

If you want to get close to imagining the horrific devastation that the nazis delivered, this book will get you closer. extremely well researched, etc, and explains why the soviets were so ill prepared. highly recommend.

http://www.amazon.com/900-Days-Siege-Leningrad/dp/0306812983
isbn 0306812983

Much like the locals learnt to do during the Siege of Leningrad, you need to avoid the one side of each street that is vulnerable to artillery.

A couple of books about the Soviet WW2 era.

Man Is Wolf To Man.

The 900 Days.

A couple that I've read from Antony Beevor:

Stalingrad, and its follow up book The Fall of Berlin 1945. Beevor has also written books on the Ardennes, D-Day, and an all encompassing book on WWII. I have yet to read those but can attest that his two Eastern Front focused books are fantastic

I would also highly recommend The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad by Harrison Salisbury. Absolutely haunting stuff.

Oh man. There's an interesting passage about Lenin's body in a book about the siege of Leningrad and the extreme measures they took to ensure its safety.

https://www.amazon.com/900-Days-Siege-Leningrad/dp/0306812983/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483886332&sr=8-1&keywords=900-Days-Siege-Leningrad%2F