At the start of WWII, the Soviet military was one of the largest in the world. In the mid 1930s it was also one of the most modern in terms of equipment and technology. However, being the product of a vicious dictator, it was woefully unable to fight properly. Stalin's bloody purges of the 1930's killed millions of loyal Soviets, including most of the military's officer corps and the experienced NCO ranks as well. This left mostly incompetent toadies in positions of power, where they would be either incapable of challenging Soviet leadership or in such fear of them that they were basically just yes men. The Soviet Union nearly paid the price for this as it nearly was over run by the much better equipped and better led German Army. It was only due to weather than they survived the initial years of the German invasion.

In his book on the Soviet military from its inception after WWI until the end of 1941, author Dr Nigel Thomas concentrates on the build up and the structure of the Soviet military in the broadest of terms as a full detailed look is beyond the scope of this series. As with all Men-At-Arms titles, this one has a look at how the conflicts of the time shaped the Soviet military, giving a look at how they performed during the various campaigns.

Throughout the book are a superb collection of period photos and illustrations. This is all enhanced more by the superbly done uniform illustrations of Darko Pavlovic. I have to give special credit to Darko Pavlovic's art work. It is by far the best I have seen in this series, and that is saying quite a bit as Osprey has some very talented illustrators. His illustrations of the men and uniforms look like they are photographs, they are so realistically portrayed. 

It is another fascinating title for the series and a real must have for those who have a penchant for the Soviet military or for figure modelers.

November 2010

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