Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich

The historians focused their work on the following topics; how had the Red Army been able to prevail against an enemy considered to be superior, which resources had the Soviets brought to bear to achieve victory and what motivations drove the soldiers', sailors' and civilians' willingness to fight and die to defend the city and the homeland. Hellbeck characterizes the interviews as a "finely woven, multifaceted picture of soldiers in battle"(5) and states his key purpose to provide readers the opportunity to view the defenders of Stalingrad as "thinking and feeling"(6) individuals with emotions and nuanced motives for their actions. From the accounts presented in the book, the author concludes that the Communist party had enthusiastic adherents and true believers whose work in educating, exhorting and inspiring the troops was so interwoven into the very fiber of life in the Red Army that it served as the most powerful mobilizing force for individual soldiers. [...]he had to hide the work deep in an archive to prevent it being destroyed.