The first thing that struck me about this book was that it was obviously a labor of love. Professor Cottam has been researching this topic for years, meeting in person many of the heroic women whose stories she recounts in the pages of _Women in War and Resistance_. Almost none of the material contained within the book comes from any recent interviews, though. Rather, it is the product of extensive compiling and translation of Soviet records and publications. The result is a very polished and professional study of a side of the WWII Russian Front that I knew about but had never seriously delved into.

I consider myself fairly well read when it comes to the Soviet military, but right from the first few pages I discovered that my "knowledge" of Soviet women combatants was based on typical Western misconceptions. It was neither the shortage of manpower or the desire to make a propaganda statement that brought Soviet women into combat roles. Instead, it was their sheer determination to take part in the defense of the Motherland and the consistent proving of their combat mettle that accounts for women being welcomed (despite considerable skepticism) into the ranks of the Red Army.

Most of the women whose stories were selected for inclusion in this book are recipients of the coveted Hero of the Soviet Union (HSU) award. This prestigious list includes women from all combat services, but the majority are either Red Air Force pilots or participants in the Soviet resistance.

Almost all Soviet women pilots seemed to have been inspired by a trio of female aviation pioneers named Valentina Grizodubova, Polina Osipenko and Marina Raskova. These three women became as famous in the Soviet Union during the 1930's as Amelia Erhardt was in the West. Grizodubova went on to command a regiment consisting of all men, the only instance of this ever happening, while Raskova formed the first women's regiments and commanded one of them until her death in January of 1943 (Osipenko died in a plane crash before the war). In what seems very unusual to an American reader, bomber/ground attack pilots received much more recognition than fighter pilots. In fact, the only Soviet woman fighter pilot to be named as a Hero of the Soviet Union was Lidya Litvyak, who was awarded the honor posthumously in 1990, nearly 50 years after having been killed in action in August of 1943.

Whenever I was reading through the bios of the women of the Red Army and Air Force, I was glad to learn that many of these heroines lived long and healthy lives after the war and that a good number of them were still alive as of the late 1990s. Then I got to the stories of Soviet Resistance fighters... In their cases, the survivors can be counted on one hand. All the previous stories had been of women who risked their lives fighting the Nazis; all the following were about women who almost invariably sacrificed theirs for the same cause. Some died under torture by the Nazis or their collaborators while others fought to the last bullet against suicidal odds. Very, very few lived to see the invader driven out of their homeland. In many ways, their stories are the most profound.

Two other groups of Soviet women combatants were also included. The first were recipients of the Order of Glory, 1st Class. This award was reserved exclusively for privates, NCOs, and (in the case of the air force) junior lieutenants. It was actually awarded far less often than the Hero of the Soviet Union medal. Only four women received this very rare award for frontline service.

The stories of four female veterans of the Russian Civil War (1918-22) finish up the book. This conflict, not widely written about in the West, is of particular interest to me. I especially enjoyed the bio of "Zemlyachka." Her name appeared briefly in other accounts I had read as someone particularly feared and detested by the counter-revolutionary "White" armies. It was good to finally read a more favorable account of her wartime service. 20 years before Hitler's invasion, "Zemlyachka" and the other three Bolshevik fighters whose stories are told here took part in an epic struggle against a homegrown Russian fascist movement whose victory would have dramatically altered the course of all that was to follow.

Professor Cottam has written a great book that will interest readers of both Soviet and military history as well as those seeking a historical perspective on the current debate regarding women in combat. She has also put together three other books containing both first- and third-person accounts of Soviet women in wartime. If you have even a slight interest in the subject, _Women in War and Resistance_ is a must.

The face of war maybe is not a woman's face, but women have endured the hardships, the horrors and the casualties of war (and sometime the direct combat experience) since the dawn of humanity. However, what happened during the Soviet-German conflict was literally unprecedented: nearly one million of women of all ages and varied ethnical origin joined the Red Army in its titanic struggle against the invading German Army - and fought until the end in May 1945. It was an extraordinary situation, born out of a series of complex premises, and it's still an aspect of this multi-faced conflict not widely know with the large audience (that still relay on third hand clichés popularised by movies and the The personal stories of these women will remain, at large, unknown. Now, thanks to the patient work of Prof. K.J. Cottam, one of the foremost experts in the field, here's a collection of 100 mini-biographies of women who participated to the war, and received the title of Hero of Soviet Union (the SU rough equivalent of German "Pour Le Merite"). Being an original work entirely based on the rigorous research of archival material (plus, in some instance, interviews with some of the book protagonist) it's a great advance for our knowledge of this topic.

The origin, motivations, role and eventual fate of these women were mixed. Some piloted PO-2 biplanes on night bombing strikes (something I wouldn't wish for my worst enemy), and some flew deadly Yak-1 in bitter dog-fighting. Some drove T-34 battle tanks built with their own money, and some, in the role of snipers, killed scores of enemy officers with frightening efficiency. Many did medical duties, often being killed while protecting their wounded comrades. And many more fought the obscure, hard and ambiguous battles of partisan warfare and underground resistance, often paying with torture and death their choice. Also, if many of the women portrayed in this collection were perfectly integrated in the Soviet system, many others where considered "unreliable" by the Communists authorities, and where awarded only decades after the end of the war, if not when the Soviet State collapsed. And also, if some survived war's hazards died of old age or is still living in post-Soviet Russia, many of them died during the war or - because of wartime toils - just afterwards.

It's difficult, if not impossible to find a common denominator for the characters included in Cottam's volume. While it's evident that a lot of these women joined the fight out of the desire to help their country, others found this as a way toward independence, emancipation and adventure. Prof. Cottam thesis is that - contrarily to the common view held in the West - their chance to see the frontline wasn't part of a organic Communist view of the women's role in the Army. Instead, military resistance to the "acquisition" of female personnel for combat duty was often overcome by personal lobbying to the higher authorities, and a skilful mix of stubbornness, determination and pre-war technical skills (many pilots belonged to air club, and many of the snipers had a past on sport or hunting). It must be noted also that women's presence in the Red Army declined markedly after V-E Day. While all this is probably true, it true also that the Soviet system made much of women's presence in the military machine, and the same presence couldn't have been possible without the presence of a political system bent (at least in theory) on giving social equity. The same Prof. Cottam admit that the Soviet women soldiers experience didn't came simply out of the desperate need for relatively skilled personnel to be thrown into the battlefield meat grinder (or worse, as some latter day bigot insinuates, because of the need for female companionship in the barracks). On the contrary, it can be seen as a real movement generating into different strata of the Russian society, partly because of the war conditions, but also because the terrain was fertile for such experiment. And the high percentage of decorated women, their often-extraordinary deeds, and the fact that many of the decorations came posthumously, testifies to the contribution they did to the war effort.

This is a book that deserves to be read and discussed, not least because of Prof. Cottam skill, authority and method. It could have been easy for her to trivialise, simplify or sentimentalise the matter just make it appetising to a wider audience. In an age of pseudo histo-journalism mainly based on recycled secondary sources, she worked for years on the real thing - archival documents or stories published contemporarily to the facts. "Women in War and Resistance" is the welcome product of this effort.

As the author points out in her introduction, contrary to persistent myth, the women in the USSR were NOT privileged nor offered traditionally masculine employment opportunities on a golden platter. They were certainly not welcome in the military. The sacrifices and feats of these women figher pilots, tankers, snipers, naval commandoes, spies, and medical personnel are all the more impressive. K.J. Cottam presents these hero tales without the gloss of the familiar Soviet propaganda. She has consulted diaries, combat reports where available, military histories and conducted many interviews with survivors and their families.

I was attracted to this title because of my interest in the Russo-German war. I wanted to read about the contributions of women and was wary of the usual Soviet ballyhoo about their valorous decorated women and how the Soviet system inspired and rewarded their dedication. True, many of the women described in these pages were dedicated, as was inevitable under the Hammer and Sickle (and in the face of German brutality). However this book makes clear that their impressive and tragic sacrifices were on behalf their families and to prove their value to their homeland. They were dedicated professionals, not crusaders.

I was not disappointed. A fascinating, relatively unknown and important story, well told. I commend Dr. Cottam for presenting this excellent cross-section of Russian women at war.

I have read all the books I could find about this subject,and
I think that this one is by far the most comprehensive. Clearly
the author has put an enormous amount of work and "IT SHOWS".

The Circassians are one of the world's forgotten peoples. This volume provides in itself a most useful source for a wide variety of information about them and, thanks to the rich bibliography (see another on the author's website), gives readers the opportunity to find out even more from works of narrower but deeper focus.

The Circassians historically spread across the N. W. Caucasus, speaking a language that was closely related to, but mutually unintelligible with, Ubykh and Abkhaz(-Abaza). The Ubykhs lived compactly around today's Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, whilst to their south(-east) lay the ancestral homeland of the Abkhazians. Though contacts existed with the Graeco-Roman world and then with Genoese traders a millennium later, it was not really until an expansive Tsarist Russia started to vie with Turkey for control of the region from the late 18th century that Circassia again impinged on the European conscience. A number of moving accounts have been left by such British visitors as James Bell, John Longworth and Edmund Spencer, which contributed to heightened awareness of the noble Circassian-Ubykh-Abkhazian resistance to the Russian aggressor and sympathy for their cause amongst many in Britain and Europe during the 1830s -- just as the parallel battle for freedom led by Shamil in the N. E. Caucasus excited great admiration. But the inevitable happened in 1864 when the N. W. Caucasian alliance was finally defeated and Russia took control. Most of the surviving Circassians and Abkhazians together with ALL the Ubykhs chose to leave their territories and take refuge in Ottoman lands (mainly Turkey). Ubykh died out in 1992, and the future for Circassian and Abkhaz amongst the diaspora is bleak -- in many ways the future of these two languages even in the Caucasian homeland is far from secure.

Amjad Jaimoukha comes from a Kabardian (East Circassian) family in Jordan and has done his people great service in producing this volume. The main deficiency is the absence of any description of the Circassian language, which, to confess a long-held personal belief, I find to be the most beautiful sounding language I have ever heard, and whose loss would be a tragedy not only for the Circassians as an ethno-linguistic group but also for the world of language-study. One or two other points could be made, as indeed I have in a fuller review for the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, but for the purposes of comment here I hope that the book is successful and enjoyed by all its readers.

Abkhazian, Circassian, now I am looking forward to have Ubykh one from same handbook series, I do want to thanks to Amjad Jaimoukha for his extraordinary work.

Excellent Source of information!

My daughter got dressed up and did a beautiful creative dance for me last week. When she was done, she said, "Mom, don't I look like that pretty little girl in the carrot book?" That in itself wouldn't be amazing except for the fact that WE DON'T OWN THIS BOOK! WE HAD CHECKED THIS BOOK OUT FROM THE PUBLIC LIBRARY ABOUT 6 MONTHS AGO! I'm buying my copy today! The illustrations grab you. They're realistic, colorful and created with a sense of humor. I could say the same for the text which builds page to page allowing each member of the family to play a role in contributing to the success of the giant carrot. My children love this book, especially when I read it with a "southern drawl."

I conduct a weekly preschool storytime at a public library in California. After I finished reading this book, there was a physical confrontation between two children who both wanted to check it out! What a crowd-pleaser, and a pleasure to read aloud.

The prose glows as warmly as the sun-drenched illustrations. Definitely one of the best of the recent crop of picture books. I just wish the author had included, not only a recipe for sweet carrot puddin', but also one for wide Mama Bess's thick carrot stew! Yum!

A foreword for this 2nd printing is written by Nancy K. Splain, J.D., Liaison to the American Bar Association's Far Eastern Project - Ukraine. Dr. Splain lived in Ukraine 2001 and 2002. She has traveled many of the same by-ways as Lise did during her escape with her Mennonite people. In this unusual foreword, Dr. Splain describes the lush hills of Crimea where Lise was born and her passion for this book is obvious. Dr. Splain's foreword is an outstanding addition to this award winning book.

Escape to freedom. Survival. How might we lose our freedoms? This author tells it all.

has written this true story in Lise's own, up-lifting and charming words as a child of Dutch-German parents trapped in Russia. I consider it an important addition to the unknown, unadmitted history of Russia's people and Lise's escape with 140 of her people is an amazing story for all ages. This exciting, well crafted book is hard to put down. It is both relevant and powerful. How difficult it is to earn freedom -- how easy to lose it! I Heard My People Cry is felt in the hearts, and seen upon the faces of all mankind. So relevant for day!

I normally race through books like a speed demon, but this was so enjoyable I read it s-l-o-w-l-y - and several times.

Olga was a woman raised in the lap of luxury in the Russian court but was able and willing to work at hard physical labor on farms in Denmark and Canada for decades without apparent bitterness at what many might consider her "fall" from high status.

At the very end of her life with no income and relatives around her, she accepted an invitation from Russian emigrees and spent her last months on a second-floor apartment in a working-class neighborhood in Toronto.

I have been going through some drastic changes in my life - rather unwillingly - and have spent a lot of time thinking about Olga and how she accepted things that happened.

Was she perfect? No, but I wonder if I could have lived her life with so much courage and acceptance.

I HIGHLY recommend this book.

This is a wonderful book, written in direct cooperation with the Grand Duchess herself. Born into the purple as the daughter of a Tsar, Olga Alexandrovna ended her life as she had always sought to live it - simply, and with family. Her insights, and the author's, are a wonderful portal to an era of an almost-mythical past. Though this new edition has many errors, I think it's due to sloppy editing of computer scans. I hope that next time around, these errors will be fixed.

This is one of the finest books I have read from the Romanov treasury. I have a first edition copy that took me almost a year to find and it was worth the wait. Because of Mr. Vorres research and interview skills combined the the story telling of the Grand Duchess, I was unable to put it down. In fact, I am reading it for a second time. There is no better story than that from the one who lives it. Olga was a cut above the others in the Imperial family in that she was devoted to common folk. She is revered and respected for thinking outside the box. A woman ahead of her time and one that refused to abide by the norm. I wish I could have met her in the simplest of circumstances. I recommend this book to those who a truly interested in Romanov history. She does a great justice in defense of her family.

Having never truly suffered, most Americans born in the post war years as I was can not really grasp the supreme tenacity of the human spirit. Nina's Journey opened my eyes to just how much suffering brings out the absolute best in some people, the demonic worst in others. Nina Markovna lived in the Soviet Union under Stalin, when "comrade-citizens" living in constant fear of nighttime purges commonly kept bundles of winter clothes ready year round in the event of imprisonment at short notice. Rampaging gangs of gulag orphans terrorize the towns, their status as children of enemies of the state condemning them to short brutal lives of homelessness and starvation. Nina records the arrival of the German Wehrmacht to Crimea in the early 1940's--instead of fighting them, the beleaguered citizens welcome them as liberators from their own cruel regime. When the Red Army gains the upper hand, Nina's family escapes to Germany as "guest workers" where at war's end, they must avoid repatriation to the Soviet Union at all costs. This book is filled with heart rending scenes of life lived at the ugly edges of endurance, where often the only thing between life and death is the intervention of a single good soul, whose refusal to give in to the hate of war is testimony to the power of love. This book gives witness to the fact that though one person might not be able to do everything, he can do something. And those small somethings saved not only lives, but souls.

This book is without a doubt the most breathtaking, exciting, epic, harrowing, (fill in the blank!) autobiography (or biography) I have ever read. I have loaned this out to at least five other people who have had the same reaction. Nina and her family had perhaps 30 adventures (within one great adventure) any of which would top the most memorable event in the average life today. Nina evades starvation, instant death, rape, murder, treachery, and more in the course of her late teenage years just before and during World War II. Her style of writing and convictions make you know that whatever she is writing about, no matter how unbelievable today, is completely true. Gone With The Wind is a trifle compared to her adventures.

Epic Scenes: Wandering through the river of Russian prisoners captured by the Germans and actually finding her father. Her successful plan to avoid rape by the Russian Army. Her mother's desperate trek to get to work on time in the ice storm or risk imprisonment. Her family's voulunteering for slave labor in Germany to raise their standard of living. The happy ending at the American air base. Scores more.

If this story were made into a movie, it would be the epic to end all epics. Since it tells what actually happened to her, it relates the good relations between the Russian people and the German Army relatively free of the SS influence in southern Russia. Compared to their life under Stalin, the German occupation of Odessa was a golden moment for the average Russian living there at that time--something that the populace paid for with their lives when the Red Army swept in again. By the time Nina loses her Jewish friends to the second, SS-led German invasion, genocide merges with the on-going sorrow of daily life of the Russian people as just something else to endure and survive.

Nina's Journey is filled with details little understood by Americans today, but what remains is an epic struggle by on Russian girl to survive the upheaval and strife of the late 30's and early 40's. I couldn't put it down.

I have never felt such emotion and drama while reading an autobiography . Nina's Journey should be read by every Amercan high school student as part of History class. I know that I am not the same person I was before I read this book. Never before has a story touched me so deeply and stayed with me like this one has.

An amazing eye opener. A side of Russia I never knew about, bright, colorful moving experience through 11 time zones of Russia and republics. A must coffee table title and a guide for any body who plans to go there.

The photo's are amazing, the text and the maps are very informative. Covering such a huge territory is a great job done. Best I have seen.

I did not know that Russia is as beautiful as its shown. I want to go there.

Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881 is the long-awaited final volume by Joseph Frank, Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Princeton University and Professor of Comparative Literature and Slavic Languages and Literature Emeritus at Stanford University.

Previous volumes in the series are: Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849; Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859; Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865; and Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871.

It was during the final decade of his life, 1871-1881, that Dostoevsky wrote Diary of a Writer and his greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Many pages of Frank's fifth volume deals with analzying these two works (140 pages for The Brothers Karamazov alone).

With impressive literary scholarship, Frank throws light on the historical, political, economic, social, cultural, and literary setting within which Dostoevsky created his works of art, novels of great psychological depth.

For example, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "Dostoevsky, the only psychologist, by the way, from whom I had anything to learn; he is one of the happiest accidents of my life, even more so than my discovery of Stendhal."

Dostoevsky traced the roots of the evils in Russian society to a loss of religious faith. By "religious faith" he meant specifically the Christian faith of the Russian Orthodox Church. He thought the Roman Catholic Church was a distortion and perversion of true Christianity. (See the harangue Dostoevsky puts into the mouth of Prince Myshkin in Part Four, Chapter VII, of The Idiot.

Of particular interest is Frank's discussion of Dostoevsky's philosophical thinking (framed, of course, within a Christian worldview), such as his ruminations on Russian nationalism, rational egoism, and the freedom of the will, and his grave concerns over the adverse moral and political effects of atheism and nihilism.

Frank soft-pedals Dostoevsky's notorious anti-Semitism, seeking to exonerate his hero as being simply "a child of his time."

Although one finds many things to dislike about Dostoevsky, one cannot help being impressed by his literary genius. Recognizing the excellence of Dostoevsky's art, Frank devotes the lion's share of his volume not to the man himself but to the man's literary production.

While this is surely not the fault of Joseph Frank, one is depressed by the seemingly endless fare of Russian sectarian bickering and murky political maneuverings. One breathes a huge sigh of relief to escape this oppressive atmosphere.

A truly triumphant conclusion to a massive and passionate undertaking. Frank shows the highest standards of scholarship in being objective, fair, yet sympathetic to one of the greatest of all writers. In this final volume, we have Dostoevsky living and breathing the Russian air of his beloved land seething with social, cultural and political issues of the day. An engaged and far-seeing artist if ever there was one. The complexity and paradoxical simplicity of his life presents us a real genius often at odds with the way he would be perceived by many of his readers, yet a humane and sincere human being. Now go back and read the magnificent works he has given us from his pen.

"Dostoevsky : The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881" is the fifth and final volume in Frank's extraordinary biography of Dostoevsky, a remarkable undertaking of more than a quarter century. While every volume has been exceptional and well worth reading, because they share a title and differ only in subtitle Amazon's system tends to muddle reviews of the various volumes together. This final volume covers the last decade of Dostoevsky's life, so don't buy it expecting a one-volume bio of the great writer. If you care about Dostoevsky's work find copies of the first four volumes, read them, then read this book. The series sets a superlative standard for examining a great writer's life and works, but this volume isn't really intended to stand alone, despite a short "story-to-date" intro.

If an appreciation of the personal perspective of the poet can deepen the experience of his words, then Lemkhin's photographic tribute to Brodsky's beloved home belongs on our bookshelves alongside the poetry books and essays of the Nobel laureate. Except for an intimate foreword by Milosz, a moving afterword by Sontag, and brief postnotes in which Lemkhin provides background details on several of the images, the message of this book is delivered entirely through black-and-white images. The voice of those visions comes through most clearly when one imagines viewig through the eyes of the poet himself, not only in the streets and the statues, the skies and the stories of Leningrad, but in the mirror of the close-up snapshots of Brodsky himself placed throughout the collection of pictures. Even the mediocre artistic quality of some of the individual snapshots can be forgiven as the soft footsteps of the poet can be heard stepping through his own lines in the movement of these deeply personal worlds of his own home.

JOSEPH BRODSKY, LENINGRAD: FRAGMENTS succeeds on every level. For those not familiar with Brodsky's brilliant poetry I would recommend that you spend time with WATERMARKS, his tribute to the city of Venice, before coming to this book. Once the gentle subtleties of his poetry are in mind, then spending time perusing this pictorial essay of Brodsky's face and the scenes of Leningrad (the old name for St. Petersburg is used because that was the city's Soviet name used when Brodsky lived there) will form a complete picture of this amazing expatriate. Mikhail Lemkhin addresses not only the pictorial influences on the poet, but also adds some words of wisdom. The tribute at the end of the photographs, in some of Sunsan Sonntag's most eloquent writing, is a fitting closure to this very lovely book. Highly recommended.

I greatly enjoyed the two books by Mikhail Lemkhin: "Missing Frames" and "Fragments". I am especially moved by portraits. There is something about the portraits that make them very different from most others. The pictures are not posed, but don't seem to be too candid either. I get the impression that the subject is aware of the photographer, but is not posing for him, at least not physically. It is as if the subject is exposing his/her inner soul to the camera. The photographs work, in deeply satisfying way, very well. I know I will look at them again and again.

The pictures are elegant even if the subject isn't. Very beautiful book. Know that the book is not intended to show you all aspects of life in Soviet Russia. It focuses more on the downside of life.

Having traveled in Russia during the Soviet era, I believe that Sherbell, in words and images, has captured the essence of the latter stages of the Empire. The picures and text show a deep understanding and appreciation of the problems of the Soviet system. More importantly, the beauty, humanity and resiience of the Russian people come shining through. It is a terrific photo book.

Whether or not you ever visited the Soviet Union in its dying days, Shepard Sherbell's photographs will grab you. His images of that moribund nation reveal the darkest secrets of the U.S.S.R. Those of us who lived through those final moments will recognize the chilling faces of a great power in demise. The crumbling buildings, cracking monuments and crushed spirits of a once-mighty state are beautifully portrayed in this book. It's an eyewitness to a land of infinite impossibilities.

Make no mistake: THE SOVIETS is not another collection of snapshots from Red Square and the Bolshoi Theater. Instead, its pages are populated with glimpses into the real life of that now-extinct country. Unless you'd lived there, this is a side of the Soviet Union you probably never saw.

Brace yourself.