[.ca] Victims, Victors: From Nazi Occupation to the Conquest ... (ISBN 0971765065)

Soviet WWII Memoir:
Title: Victims, Victors from Nazi Occupation to the conquest of Germany as seen by a Red Army Soldier Authour: Roman Kravchenko-Berezhnoy Publisher: Aberjona Press ISBN:0-9717650-6-5 Stars: 5 (out of 5) Picked this book up right from the publisher which arrived quickly with no hassels. As I find myself going into memoirs of WWII I figured this one would fit in great. I was not wrong. This book is the life story of Roman and what he went through from the start of WWII and ends with him sitting in his room well into his golden years. As with any memoir this book gives a good background of his family incl his fathers' involvment on the White side of the Russian Civil War. This fact comes up quite a bit during and after the war. Book is broken into 4 chapters which have the authour writting his diary during the German occupation. You can feel his youthfull frustration at being occupied and not being able to continue his schooling. He also describes the sadness watching schoolmates being taken to their deaths because they were Jews. Both him and the friends KNOWING they were going to be killed. This memoir continues with being liberated, and his ultimately being "recruited" into a Soviet unit and continuing with their advance. He mentions being attacked and having to retreat and also attacking and advancing into German. Though he mentions he never saw any atrocities commited by the Red Army he also does not deny they did not happen. I found the last couple of chapters just as interesting with his life after the war and how he came to be a scientist and also how he assisted in getting a hijacked plane to land in Sweden. A very well written memoir of one Soviet Soldier from his youth to his life now.