On the Road to Stalingrad: Memoirs of a Woman Machine Gunner
- Book Review,
by Zoya Matveyevna Smirnova-Medvedeva, Kazimiera J. Cottam (Translator)
David M. Glantz, Editor, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies
Cottam succeeded in collecting, translating, and editing unprecedented amounts of documentary evidence detailing the scope and importance of the participation of Soviet women in the war. Taken together, the four volumes capture the breadth and depth of the role of Soviet women in the war effort... The genuine value of these books and the interest they are bound to generate among specialists and general readers alike argue for their wider dissemination. The books should be made available to the wider audience they so richly deserve. (David M. Glantz, Editor, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, March 1999. (Colonel Glantz is founder and former director of the U.S. Army's Foreign Military Studies Office.))
Leslie Blanchard, Editor, A Writer's Choice Literary Journal, April 1999
Another brilliant look inside the life of a true Russian hero who happens to be female. Nearly one million women served in the Soviet Armed Forces during World War II and many were active combatants. The author fought with the famous 25th Chapayev Division, and provides us with an honest eyewitness account of the desperate fighting for Odessa and Sevastopol. Another wonderful offering from New Military Publishing.
David M. Glantz, Editor, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, in a review essay scheduled for publication in March 1999
"The genuine value of these books and the interest they are bound to generate among specialists and general readers alike argue for their wider dissemination. The books should be made available to the wider audience they so richly deserve."
Book Description
This is a book about a young girl who volunteered to serve in the famous 25th Chapayev Division and became a machine gunner. She was inspired by another girl machine gunner to keep a diary and tell the story of her comrades-in-arms. This book, which mainly describes the war in the trenches on the Eastern Front, is being used as a textbook in American universities and colleges. The editor/translator of this book has taught Russian History at the University of Ottawa and worked for the Canadian Department of National Defense. She is a recipient of the 1999 Mary Zirin Prize awarded by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies (affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies).
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian
From the Publisher
Kazimiera J. Cottam is an expert military translator, editor and author. She is a PhD graduate in Russian history from the University of Toronto and a former Research Associate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is also a retired history professor and public servant who was employed at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow in 1988. A published author since 1972, awarded a prestigious prize for an article in the Reader's Digest, she has been researching the little known story of Soviet women in combat for many years.
From the Back Cover
About one million women served in the Soviet Armed Forces during World War II, many of whom were combatants. Zoya Medvedeva, the author and principal heroine of this book, a creative documentary, fought with the famous 25th Chapayev Division. She has provided an authentic, eyewitness account of the desperate fighting in the trenches for Odessa and Sevastopol, as promised to her role model, mentor and friend Nina Onilova, before the latter died in March 1942. Though half-blinded, Zoya became a machine-gun company commander. Too modest to dwell on her own exploits, instead she writes about her former comrades-in-arms, many of whom were killed or hospitalized and some, like Zoya herself, were temporarily surrounded by the enemy after their release from various military hospitals.
About the Author
Zoya Matveyevna Medvedeva was a Soviet teenager who volunteered for service at the front during World War II. She fought with the famous 25th Chapayev Division which defended the vital Black Sea ports of Odessa and Sevastopol (5 August-16 October 1941 and 30 October 1941-4 July 1942 respectively). She was half-blinded yet still drove herself to rise in the ranks and become a machine gun company commander. In this book, she details the heroics of her comrades without focusing primarily on herself--though we certainly come to understand her integrity and grit.
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