Claws of the Bear: The History of the Red Army from the Revolution to the Present - Hardcover

Moynahan, Brian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395510767 ISBN 13: 9780395510766

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1989

Synopsis

Chronicles the history of the Red Army, from the Revolution of 1917, to their part in the battles of World War II, to their present-day position as an omenously powerful enterprise

About this title

From Library Journal:

Moynahan, European editor of the London Times , has written a fast-paced, compelling popular history of the world's largest armed force. His extensive reliance on standard published sources is balanced by his narrative skills. Moynahan describes the Red army's origins in the Revolution of 1917, its evolution under Stalin, its apotheosis in the Russo-German War. The primary emphasis, however, is on the years after 1945, and the army's evolution into what Moynahan regards as the predominant institution of the Soviet Union. The Red army may have absorbed a disproportionate share of the USSR's resources, but it has repaid the investment by continuing loyalty and efficiency. Particularly appropriate for the era of glasnost are Moynahan's warnings against exaggerating the degree of significant disaffection in the USSR. Recommended over Albert and Jean Seaton's The Soviet Army: 1918 to the Present (NAL, 1987).
- Dennis E. Showalter, Colorado Coll., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

Skillfully blending political and social history, Moynahan's gripping, exceptionally vivid account of the Soviet army will be read with fascination even by those who would normally shun books of military history. The backward "Russian streamroller" that marched off to the guns of August 1914 lost millions of men. In Stalin's incredibly self-wounding purge of 1937-1938, tens of thousands of non-rebellious Soviet officers were murdered. Hitler's onslaught took the lives of countless more. Yet, somehow, the Red Army survived and evolved into an enormous, efficient killing machine. European editor of the London Sunday Times , Moynahan offers savvy chapters on the Red Bear's sweep into Eastern Europe, the army's defeat in Afghanistan, training of soldiers, the role of the KGB and the military in technical espionage. Soviet research into particle-beam and laser weaponry is proceeding apace, according to the author. Photos.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0395510767
• ISBN 13: 9780395510766
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 468