Russia's heroes - Albert Axell

With Hitler's invasion of Russia on Sunday 22 June 1941 the Eastern front opened in World War II and politicians and generals around the world predicted the swift destruction of the Soviet armies. Nazi Germany threw men and equipment against Russia in unprecedented numbers: 190 divisions, over 4,000 tanks, almost 5,000 airplanes and more than 200 warships. A total of 5,000,000 men took part in the blitz attack along the entire Russian frontier.

Russia's Heroes is the story of the ordinary and extraordinary men and women soldiers of Russia: the snipers who engaged in duels in No Man's Land; Cossack cavalry regiments crossing the ice at night to raid ammunition dumps; pilots out of ammunition using their propellers to cut off the tailplanes of enemy aircraft . . . soldiers who fought in an insane, giant conflict - the largest theatre of war the world has ever seen in which 27 million died. Using interviews and primary evidence collected in Russia, much of it never previously published, Albert Axell tells the story of the Eastern Front as it unfolds, interweaving his accounts of individual exploits with the progress of the war itself. The book is both a history and a tale of courage and endurance, unbelievable heroism combined with an implacable refusal to admit defeat - whatever the odds.

For more than 60 years the politics of the Cold War made it unacceptable for the real story of the Eastern front to be told.