Stalingrad

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I must say, this sounds absolutely astonishing," he told RFE/RL on January 17 in response to Ukraine's refusal to allow the import of 30,000 copies of his book Stalingrad. "There's certainly nothing inherently anti-Ukrainian in the book at all."

You’ve got to have a sense of normality, but also you want to have a sense of the absurd; and let’s face it, you’re going to find tragedy in war, and all the rest of it, but also, slightly, to alleviate the horror and the suffering, you’ve got to find the odd amusing thing, because quite often there are some very funny things which happen in war, not surprisingly. You’ve got to provide the occasional bit of light relief to the reader. People often ask, ‘Are there still huge secrets to discover?’ I think, on the whole, we’ve got a pretty good idea, but there’s always going be extra material, good explanations for things we’re not quite certain about. And, of course, there’s a huge amount of more human detail. There was the arrogance of the Nazi occupation of Holland and the belief that the Dutch should have remained loyal to them when they had violated Dutch neutrality. They had looted the country. And then, that it should be treason for the Dutch to help the Allies when the invasion comes. Again, it’s this total confusion of cause and effect, which I think is rather important in understanding the right-wing German mentality. Five Dials He also expressed doubt as to whether errors or misrepresentations might have been introduced in the Russian version targeted in the Ukrainian import ban, citing the thorough approach of publisher Azbooka-Atticus, a joint venture between French Hachette and Aleksandr Mamut's A&NN Group. RFE/RL: This is perhaps a pretty glib question, but what in your opinion are the lasting legacies of Stalingrad 70 years after the event?I remember a conversation in Moscow with [historian] Anne Applebaum, when Anne said, ‘Is it just because I’m a woman? But when I’m interviewing gulag survivors, they say, “Sit down. Don’t interrupt. I’ll tell you what happened.’’’ And I said, ‘No, I promise you, I get the same sort of thing from Red Army soldiers.’

At the end of the war, the official sources decreased and the amount of diaries increased. Is that because people get a sense that they’re in history? Antony Beevor Bernstein, Richard (26 September 1998). "An Avalanche of Death That Redirected a War". The New York Times. New York City, United States. p.E-8 . Retrieved 4 March 2009. Tragically for both countries,” Beevor writes of Germany’s incursion, “it gave German nationalists the idea that European Russia and Ukraine should become their colonial possessions in the next war.” The idea, of course, that Ukraine was a colonial possession of Russia was already established and, as we know, has not gone away.But there weren’t women snipers at Stalingrad. I’m afraid the film “Enemy at the Gates,” which implied women were acting as snipers, as in the case of [actress] Rachel Weisz, was simply not the case.

Critics have warned that Ukrainian officials' book bans, frequently in connection with charges that works promote separatism or hatred, are a "slippery slope." Russian-made films, television series, and other cultural projects have also been banned. Judd, Alan (28 April 2002). "Every sort of assault: review of Berlin: the Downfall, 1945 by Antony Beevor". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 30 March 2007 . Retrieved 4 March 2009.

British historian and best-selling author Antony Beevor says he is dumbfounded at a decision by Ukrainian authorities to ban the import of a Russian translation of his award-winning account of a major tipping point in World War II and that he expects an apology. urn:lcp:stalingrad00beev:epub:3732ac35-5aa7-4237-b77b-2dfd30f092dd Extramarc University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (PZ) Foldoutcount 0 Identifier stalingrad00beev Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t9g45fp9k Isbn 0670870951 Beevor: Altogether around a million Russians -- or those of Soviet nationality -- served on the German side in one form or another. Now the majority of these, one must remember, were called "Hiwis" -- Hilfswilliger [German for “one willing to help”] -- or auxiliary volunteers. They weren’t actually volunteers in many cases. They had been more or less recruited by force from prison camps because they were starving and they were offered some food. They were used basically as draft animals in many cases, or to dig trenches. His works have been translated into 35 languages and have sold over 8.5 million copies. Beevor has lectured at numerous military headquarters, staff colleges and establishments in Britain, the US, Europe and Australia. He has also written for The Times, The Telegraph and Guardian, the New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Le Monde, Libération, Le Figaro, as well as El País and ABC in Spain. They did, however, have one complaint outstanding. My Russian publisher’s translator had changed “Ukrainian militiamen” to “Ukrainian nationalists”, which implicitly tars all Ukrainian nationalists with the reputation of having helped the SS Einsatzgruppen. But now my Russian publisher believes that it was right to change the word on the grounds that the militiamen were operating under the aegis of the OUN, the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists. This may seem a trivial spat over nomenclature, but it is a pertinent reminder of how powerful the grim legacy of the war remains three-quarters of a century on.

With Lyuba it was fantastic. One could see straight away that she had absolutely the right instinct, the nose. The nose is terribly important. You also need a magpie mind. You’ve got to be able to speed-read, to be able to fasten on the vital things. She immediately had that instinct. Others were too conscientious. There is so much material you’ve got to cover, that you mustn’t be overly conscientious. Mark No. No, of course not. What I mean is that the German supply lines were stretched. Zhukov countered and the siege was broken. And that’s all the story of Stalingrad. I’m referring, for example, to Professor Rzhezhevsky, who was the President of the Association of Second World War Historians, an Academician and the Chief Historian in the Academy of Sciences. He had actually been a huge admirer of Stalingrad, and then started sending me material on all the rest of it. But when the Berlin book came out, he immediately turned against me, saying that this was, again, lies and slander. Afterwards Chris said, ‘Listen, when we go out to dinner, don’t talk about what you’re finding in the archives or how you’re finding it.’ The struggle became a world war by proxy as Winston Churchill deployed weaponry and troops from the British empire, while armed forces from the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Poland and Czechoslovakia played rival parts. The incompatible White alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance in the end against Trotsky’s Red Army and Lenin’s single-minded Communist dictatorship.

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It wasn’t so much the Director who had the power; it was quite often the Deputy Director in the old Soviet sense – the number two with the strength. According to an old Spanish proverb, “history is a common meadow in which everyone can make hay”. It has also long been a battleground for the perpetuation of nationalist myths and political attempts to reshape the past. In recent decades there have been encouraging developments, with many more international history conferences and foreign academics recruited by universities. All of this has helped to reduce the tendency of countries to view the past uniquely from their own patriotic perspectives. At the same time governments of all shades still long to impose their versions of the past through education, pressure on the media and if necessary outright censorship and even legislation. An extraordinary story of tactical genius, civilian bravery, obsession, carnage and the nature of war itself, Stalingrad will act as a testament to the vital role of the soviet war effort. There’s no doubt about it, the best diary writers in the Second World War were women: in Italy, Iris Origo; in Germany, Ursula von Kardor and the anonymous diary of a Berlin woman; and so forth.