About the Author

Alexander Werth (1901–1969) was a British journalist. He was a war correspondent in Russia for the Sunday Times and the Guardian and a commentator for the BBC from 1941 to 1948. He was one of the first outsiders allowed into Stalingrad after the battle and one of the few journalists to visit the Majdanek concentration camp. Russia at War was his best-known work.

Nicolas Werth, the son of Alexander Werth, is a historian of the Soviet Union and an internationally-known expert on communist studies. He lives in Paris, France.

Reviews

"Magnificent . . . . It fills a great void. . . . the best book we probably shall ever have in English on Russia at war."
—William Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

"This is not merely a history (although it happens to be an excellent one). It is not a collection of personal reminiscences (although it incorporates many). It is not a scholarly examination of Russia during the critical years 1941–1945 (although it puts under close analysis many events during that period). . . . [Werth's] Russian panorama has the depth and vividness of a Vereshchagin warscape. His descriptions of Nazi atrocities . . . are almost too terrible to read. . . . [Russia at War] overflows with the contradictory, the half-understood, the mysterious, the impossible to explain. . . . It bears comparison with William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as a work of scope and power. . . . One of the most important books yet written about WWII . . .superbly dramatic."
—Harrison E. Salisbury, The New York Times Book Review

"There is no book in any language with which to compare this monumental but exceedingly readable history of the Nazi-Soviet war . . . in savagery and hatred it was the biggest war in history . . . an engrossing and terrifying book."
—Life

"Engrossing history . . . spellbinding narrative."
—Newsweek

"Monumental and absorbing. . . . An epic work that will fascinate the ordinary reader."
—Saturday Review

"An illuminating book."
—Elbridge Colby

"Alexander Werth was one of the greatest war correspondents of the Second World War."
—Antony Beevor

"Magnificent . . . . It fills a great void. . . . the best book we probably shall ever have in English on Russia at war."
—William Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

"This is not merely a history (although it happens to be an excellent one). It is not a collection of personal reminiscences (although it incorporates many). It is not a scholarly examination of Russia during the critical years 1941–1945 (although it puts under close analysis many events during that period). . . . [Werth's] Russian panorama has the depth and vividness of a Vereshchagin warscape. His descriptions of Nazi atrocities . . . are almost too terrible to read. . . . [Russia at War] overflows with the contradictory, the half-understood, the mysterious, the impossible to explain. . . . It bears comparison with William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as a work of scope and power. . . . One of the most important books yet written about WWII . . .superbly dramatic."
—Harrison E. Salisbury, The New York Times Book Review

"There is no book in any language with which to compare this monumental but exceedingly readable history of the Nazi-Soviet war . . . in savagery and hatred it was the biggest war in history . . . an engrossing and terrifying book."
—Life

"Engrossing history . . . spellbinding narrative."
—Newsweek

"Monumental and absorbing. . . . An epic work that will fascinate the ordinary reader."
—Saturday Review

"An illuminating book."
—Elbridge Colby

"Alexander Werth was one of the greatest war correspondents of the Second World War."
—Antony Beevor