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The Soviet Soldier 1941-1945 Hardcover – June 1, 2011

by Philippe Rio (Author)

4.7 61 ratings

Eight million Soviet soldiers died on the Eastern Front between 1941 and 1945. However, their history, uniforms, and day-to-day plight remain mostly undocumented to this day. Many misconceptions prevail, most of them stemming from the ferocious Nazi propaganda of the time. In reality, the Soviet soldier proved himself a resolute and well-equipped fighter. His uniform and equipment improved constantly during the Great Patriotic War, despite the shortcomings of a war-crippled economy.

There have been few books on the history and uniforms of the World War II Soviet Army. The interested reader will find here a coherent wealth of information on the Red Army's organization and orders of battle, its uniforms and equipment, and its materials (soft skinned vehicles, AFVs, Artillery, Signals...). The various guises of the Soviet soldier, from Barbarossa to the fall of Berlin, have been reproduced in color with more than 50 studio reconstructions of infantrymen, artillerymen, parachutists, tankmen, women soldiers, marines, commissars, etc.

A large variety of individual equipment, small arms, personal items, insignia and medals are illustrated in detail. The book also features hundreds of unpublished period photographs, many from the soldiers themselves.

A career French Army NCO, Philippe Rio has a passion for the Red Army, from the 1930s to the 1950s. His vast knowledge of the subject has enabled him to contribute many articles to the French Militaria Magazine.

Print length

176 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Casemate Publishers
Publication date

June 1, 2011
Dimensions

9.31 x 0.75 x 12.63 inches
ISBN-10

2352501008
ISBN-13

978-2352501008
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"What makes it so interesting to me is not only all the detail, but that the photo illustrations are mostly made up of new pictures showing the genuine items... quite enlightening...first class reference" - Military Modeling, 09/23/2011

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Casemate Publishers (June 1, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 2352501008
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-2352501008
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.06 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.31 x 0.75 x 12.63 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #409,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #143 in Historical Russia Biographies
- #221 in Conventional Weapons & Warfare History (Books)
- #741 in WWII Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.7 61 ratings

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4.7 out of 5

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Dabi

Interesting and useful book, but..

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2011

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Another very interesting and useful book of the publishing house Histoire and Collections. Beautiful edition. Paper of good quality, photos in color that show everything that collector of uniforms and militaries from II WW should see. And such a collector should see as much as possible because collecting Russian equipment is like walking in the minefield, specially for the beginners. Uniforms that are shown in the book seem to be all original, although it is common that they are identical copies of them or they exist after war uniforms that look exactly the same as the prewar. Delightful are, like usually in Histoire and Collections, personal items of soldiers that add human touch to the collection.
The weakness of the book is "communist historiography". Author, against title, didn't show soviet soldier from II WW but soviet soldier from "Great Patriotic War" - strange, bizarre name invented by soviet propaganda, which goal was to cheat history. Soldiers are shown from June 1941. But soldier of Red Army didn't start II WW from 22 June 1941 but from 17 September 1939, when the attack on Poland had place. And after that was taking land of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and a part of Romania and attack on Finland - "The Winter war". From this period however there is no single photo of Russian soldier. Comrade Stalin would praise such a selective view on history :)
DANIEL BIENEK

5 people found this helpful

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Nachtjager

Superb book - a must-have for the student of WWII Russian Soldiers

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2011

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This is a typically high-quality book from H&C, as we've come to expect. Top quality paper, outstanding photography, great hardcover format in a perfect size. Loads of fantastic detail photos of original Soviet uniforms, field gear, and personal items carried by Russian soldiers, partisans, and officers. This is an invaluable resource for anyone doing WWII reenacting or just studying the Soviet Army in WWII.

Two minor gripes; the type size and font used in the text parts of the book (not the captions) is too small and too thin against the stark white glossy paper, making it a little difficult for forty-seven-year-old eyes to read without a pair of serious magnifying reading glasses on! Even then, it's not an easy task - wish they would've used a larger, easier-to-read font. Also, some of the items are glossed over rather quickly as the book strives to cover an tremendous amount of ground within its pages. There's not a lot of detail given on the items shown, but due to the number of items shown, there simply wasn't enough room to do so.

STILL, I highly recommend this one, excellent resource book that will prove itself to be invaluable.

7 people found this helpful

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Elder Prep

The Soviet Soldier of World War Two

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2013

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Philippe Rio has provided a first rate study of the Red Army of the U.S.S.R. from 1941 to 1945. The information provided in text, tables and imagery is very detailed and easily accessed. Each page is filled with information on the subject at hand, even to a selection of the buttons used on uniforms. There is so little wasted white space, it takes one much longer to read the pages of this fascinating book, which is a welcome change from most large format survey works. For the occasional to the professional historian this book comes highly recommended.
Ken Weiler
Author of "Why Normandy Was Won: Operation Bagration and the War in the East 1941 - 1945" and "The European Theater Anthology of World War II: Unique, Unknown and Interesting Information for those familiar with the Second World War."

5 people found this helpful

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Robert Barkin

Soviet Soldiers in WWII

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2013

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Little has been written about the Soviet army's role in WWII other than the big picture. This book helps to illustrate how they were armed and what their roles were. The details are sketchy, however, but it has many decent staged photos that show Soviet equipment, uniforms, medals, badges and rank insignias for the different branches of their armed forces. All in all, it's decent outline snapshot of the Soviet military. Well illustrated and very enjoyable for a subject that needs much more information.

5 people found this helpful

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L. Alexander

Simply Incredible

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2012

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One of the most amazing books I've acquired to date. It's difficult to explain just what a thorough tome it is; I don't know if there's a question about the Soviets and their uniforms and personal equipment you can't answer here. Sharp pictures and excellent use of space. I particularly like the end where they have folks (including ladies) demonstrate good quality vintage uniforms.

I'm really pleased to have scored mine new at $59, but would be comfortable paying $100. You will enjoy this book regardless of your interests. Za Rodina!

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Robert S. Aikens

An absolute must-have for all ww2 buffs!!!

Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2011

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Being an Eastern Front historian for over 27 years now, I feel compelled to choose The Soviet Soldier as my very first review on amazon.
After the book Deutsche Soldaten by Agustin Saiz hit the market, which covers all German equiptment and uniforms of ww2, I immediately thought that a comparable work must come out that would cover the soviet side of ww2. Well behold! Here it is! This book is for anyone that has either elementary interest, or a life time of ww2 study under their belt.
To begin, the cover and binding method is high class and the book has a feel of solid quality. With that said, the contents speak for themselves. Inside you will find any and all personal effects during the period of 1941-1945.
Being more of a photo study, all uniforms and equiptment are mint condition originals, being pain stakingly Photographed on high quality gloss paper, showing even the most minute details.
The author, Philippe Rio, did an excellent job in every aspect. If you purchase this book you will not be disappointed. My copy goes right next to Deutsche Soldaten as an indispensible piece to my Eastern Front library.

30 people found this helpful

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Danisue76

Good book

Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2021

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Lots of real photos along with info at each photo.

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Buddy Redboat

Best book for this kind of information that I have found

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2019

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It is expensive for me, but has the information I wanted. My only complaint is the typeface is either thin or faint making it hard for my eyes to read. The English is perfect though. Not the first book that I have read with a magnifying glass.

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Jerome Tanguay

great book for iconography

Reviewed in Canada on December 19, 2021

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recommended for history buffs

Maurizio Motta

Qualità elevata

Reviewed in Italy on October 3, 2017

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Una serie di monografie, foto e testi riguardanti le uniformi, le armi e l'oggettistica sovietica della seconda guerra mondiale.

Preso come guida coloristica per il modellismo e totalmente soddisfatto

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エンドノフ

軍装コレクター、ヒストリカルゲマーにおすすめ。

Reviewed in Japan on February 19, 2017

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実物の軍服や装備品をモデルに着用させて写真で解説しています英語ですが写真とイラストがあるので分かりやすい、軍装コレクター、リエナクター(ヒストリカルゲーマー)におすすめ。

One person found this helpful

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Bor

A well rounded title

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2011

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As anyone who looks through my reviews will notice I'm a big fan of H&C titles, so when I saw that one dealing with the Soviet army of WW2 was being released I knew I had to have it. And I can say the book doesn't disappoint!
The book is in the usual size of a Histoire and Collection title. It's also the usual format, with lots of colour photographs of uniforms and gear. This time you get detailed information on decorations, documents, arms of service insignia and badges of rank (with a brilliant table showing all the colours of the different arms and services). Both the early war and the late war variants are shown. Next are helmets, hats, coats, breeches, boots etc. Then equipment is dealt with, where you'll get all sorts of belts, pouches, water bottles and entrenching tools. There's a good section on hand weapons, showing rifles and carbines, submachineguns, pistols and revolvers, and light machine guns. And this is only the first part of the book, totalling just under 100 pages.
The next part of the book is where the uniforms are depicted. They're shown by live models wearing the uniforms with all equipment and weapons. There'll be the inevitable closeup of interesting details. There's a fair selection of uniforms, both from the early war period and the late war period, to fill another 65+ pages. These include infantrymen, but also fighter pilots, a female medical officer, tank troopers and a despatch rider to name a few.
I really think the book succeeds on all levels. The only criticism I can think of is that I would have wanted this book to have twice the pages. Then there could have been a chapter on heavy weapons (like heavy machine guns and mortars, and anti-tank rifles), and off course, more uniform examples. But as it is I'm really satisfied with it. It's a nice addition to the only other title in its sort: Stalin's War. But I do think The Soviet Soldier gives more details and much more information than the earlier one, and as such I think it's a great addition to my WW2 uniform library.

13 people found this helpful

Frank Huebner

Sehr viele Informationen mit kleinen Lücken

Reviewed in Germany on October 1, 2011

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Das Thema Uniformen und Ausrüstung des Rotarmisten im 2. Wk war lange eher stiefmütterlich behandelt. Zwar gab es Hefte von Opsrey und Europe-Militaria, dazu mehrere Artikel in den franz. Militaria-Magazinen, aber die große Übersicht fehlte.

Nun liegt das Buch vor mir.

Und es ist super!

Es werden die Waffengattungen und die Struktur der Roten Armee (RA) eher kurz, aber die Auszeichnungen und Uniformen sehr ausführlich beschrieben.

Alle Orden werden gezeigt mit Datum der Einführung und für welche Ränge diese verliehen werden konnten. Alle Bekleidungsstücke werden gezeigt, die Ausfürhungen und Varianten der Gymnastiorkas M1935 und M1943, dazu die Offiziers- und NKWD-Versionen. Lend-Lease-Fertigungen sind auch bedacht. Dazu die Fußbekleidungen, die Helme M1935, M1939 und M1940, die Mäntel, Ausrüstungen, Mützen.

Gut gezeigt die verschiedenen Farbvarianten von grau über khaki bis dunkelgrün. Viele Fotos von originalen Stücken werden mit Fotos aus der Kriegszeit belegt. Klasse.

Die Aufmachung ist absolut modern und hochwertig. Die Bilder sind deutlich und farblich unverfälscht. Der EInband ist stabil, die Seiten in hochglanz gehalten.

Für Sammler, Reenactoren, Modellbauer oder den INteressierten ist dasBuch nur zu empfehlen. Eine solche Zusammenstellung ist mir beisher unbekannt gewesen.

Sehr schön am Ende des Buches sind viele Beispiele von orignaluniformen, die von Models getragen werden. Es werden so Uniformen gezeigt von Juni 1941 bis zum August 1945. Klasse.

Der englische Text stellt den mit Schulkenntnissen in Englisch versorgten Leser vor keine größeren Probleme.

5 people found this helpful

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