The Unwomanly Face of War

The Unwomanly Face of War PDF Author: Svetlana Alexievich
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0399588736
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
A long-awaited English translation of the groundbreaking oral history of women in World War II across Europe and Russia—from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • The Guardian • NPR • The Economist • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • Kirkus Reviews For more than three decades, Svetlana Alexievich has been the memory and conscience of the twentieth century. When the Swedish Academy awarded her the Nobel Prize, it cited her invention of “a new kind of literary genre,” describing her work as “a history of emotions . . . a history of the soul.” In The Unwomanly Face of War, Alexievich chronicles the experiences of the Soviet women who fought on the front lines, on the home front, and in the occupied territories. These women—more than a million in total—were nurses and doctors, pilots, tank drivers, machine-gunners, and snipers. They battled alongside men, and yet, after the victory, their efforts and sacrifices were forgotten. Alexievich traveled thousands of miles and visited more than a hundred towns to record these women’s stories. Together, this symphony of voices reveals a different aspect of the war—the everyday details of life in combat left out of the official histories. Translated by the renowned Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, The Unwomanly Face of War is a powerful and poignant account of the central conflict of the twentieth century, a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human side of war. THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” “A landmark.”—Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century “An astonishing book, harrowing and life-affirming . . . It deserves the widest possible readership.”—Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train “Alexievich has gained probably the world’s deepest, most eloquent understanding of the post-Soviet condition. . . . [She] has consistently chronicled that which has been intentionally forgotten.”—Masha Gessen, National Book Award–winning author of The Future Is History

Soviet Women in Combat

Soviet Women in Combat PDF Author: Anna Krylova
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781107699403
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Soviet Women in Combat explores the unprecedented historical phenomenon of Soviet young women's en masse volunteering for World War II combat in 1941 and writes it into the twentieth-century history of women, war, and violence. The book narrates a story about a cohort of Soviet young women who came to think about themselves as "women soldiers" in Stalinist Russia in the 1930s and who shared modern combat, its machines, and commanding positions with men on the Eastern front between 1941 and 1945. The author asks how a largely patriarchal society with traditional gender values such as Stalinist Russia in the 1930s managed to merge notions of violence and womanhood into a first conceivable and then realizable agenda for the cohort of young female volunteers and for its armed forces. Pursuing the question, Krylova's approach and research reveals a more complex conception of gender identities.

The Unwomanly Face of War

The Unwomanly Face of War PDF Author: Svetlana Alexievich
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0399588736
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

Get Book Here

Book Description
A long-awaited English translation of the groundbreaking oral history of women in World War II across Europe and Russia—from the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • The Guardian • NPR • The Economist • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • Kirkus Reviews For more than three decades, Svetlana Alexievich has been the memory and conscience of the twentieth century. When the Swedish Academy awarded her the Nobel Prize, it cited her invention of “a new kind of literary genre,” describing her work as “a history of emotions . . . a history of the soul.” In The Unwomanly Face of War, Alexievich chronicles the experiences of the Soviet women who fought on the front lines, on the home front, and in the occupied territories. These women—more than a million in total—were nurses and doctors, pilots, tank drivers, machine-gunners, and snipers. They battled alongside men, and yet, after the victory, their efforts and sacrifices were forgotten. Alexievich traveled thousands of miles and visited more than a hundred towns to record these women’s stories. Together, this symphony of voices reveals a different aspect of the war—the everyday details of life in combat left out of the official histories. Translated by the renowned Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, The Unwomanly Face of War is a powerful and poignant account of the central conflict of the twentieth century, a kaleidoscopic portrait of the human side of war. THE WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” “A landmark.”—Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century “An astonishing book, harrowing and life-affirming . . . It deserves the widest possible readership.”—Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train “Alexievich has gained probably the world’s deepest, most eloquent understanding of the post-Soviet condition. . . . [She] has consistently chronicled that which has been intentionally forgotten.”—Masha Gessen, National Book Award–winning author of The Future Is History

Wings, Women, and War

Wings, Women, and War PDF Author: Reina Pennington
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700615547
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The Soviet Union was the first nation to allow women pilots to fly combat missions. During World War II the Red Air Force formed three all-female units-grouped into separate fighter, dive bomber, and night bomber regiments-while also recruiting other women to fly with mostly male units. Their amazing story, fully recounted for the first time by Reina Pennington, honors a group of fearless and determined women whose exploits have not yet received the recognition they deserve. Pennington chronicles the creation, organization, and leadership of these regiments, as well as the experiences of the pilots, navigators, bomb loaders, mechanics, and others who made up their ranks, all within the context of the Soviet air war on the Eastern Front. These regiments flew a combined total of more than 30,000 combat sorties, produced at least thirty Heroes of the Soviet Union, and included at least two fighter aces. Among their ranks were women like Marina Raskova ("the Soviet Amelia Earhart"), a renowned aviator who persuaded Stalin in 1941 to establish the all-women regiments; the daredevil "night witches" who flew ramshackle biplanes on nocturnal bombing missions over German frontlines; and fighter aces like Liliia Litviak, whose twelve "kills" are largely unknown in the West. She also tells the story of Alexander Gridnev, a fighter pilot twice arrested by the Soviet secret police before he was chosen to command the women's fighter regiment. Pennington draws upon personal interviews and the Soviet archives to detail the recruitment, training, and combat lives of these women. Deftly mixing anecdote with analysis, her work should find a wide readership among scholars and buffs interested in the history of aviation, World War II, or the Russian military, as well as anyone concerned with the contentious debates surrounding military and combat service for women.

World War 2 and the Soviet People

World War 2 and the Soviet People PDF Author: John Garrard
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 134922796X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
"Selected papers from the Fourth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies, Harrogate, 1990."

A Dance With Death

A Dance With Death PDF Author: Anne Noggle
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585441778
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
For their heroism and success against the enemy, two of the women's regiments were honored by designation as "Guard" regiments. At least thirty women were decorated with the gold star of Hero of the Soviet Union, their nation's highest award.

Night Witches

Night Witches PDF Author: Bruce Myles
Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers, Limited
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
In 1941, as Nazi hordes swept east into the Soviet Union, a desperte call went out for women to join the Russian air force. The result--three entire regiments of women pilots and bombers--was a phenomenon unmatched in World II. Through interviews with these courageous pilots, the author uncovers their story. Soon to be a major motion picture.

Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War

Soviet Women on the Frontline in the Second World War PDF Author: R. Markwick
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230362540
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This is the first comprehensive study in English of Soviet women who fought against the genocidal, misogynist, Nazi enemy on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. Drawing on a vast array of original archival, memoir, and published sources, this book captures the everyday experiences of Soviet women fighting, living and dying on the front.

Women in Air War

Women in Air War PDF Author: Kazimiera J. Cottam
Publisher: Focus
ISBN: 9781585101597
Category : Air pilots, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book is a unique collection of WWII memoirs that tell, in a simple, unaffected style, the story of the three women's air fighting groups which owed their existence to Marina Raskova, a remarkable pioneer woman navigator-pilot. My superiors made no distinction between male and female regiments of which the girls were very proud. I must admit, however, I sometimes wished they remembered that our regiment consisted of women, and would not send them into the very hell. Every pilot, every crew member became dear to me. I loved them all, was proud of them, and dreaded the possibility that any one of them might not return...," wrote Major Valentin Markov, the male commander of the women's dive bomber wing, in this unique collection of WWII memoirs that tell, in a simple, unaffected style, the story of the three women's wings which owed their existence to Marina Raskova, a remarkable pioneer woman navigator-pilot. Of the three women's wings, the night bomber regiment was awarded an unprecedented number of Gold Stars of Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest Soviet decoration, and its aircrews at times flew as many as eighteen short-range missions per night. The unit was staffed exclusively by women. In contrast, the dive bomber and fighter wings included some male personnel, mainly in ground support roles. As well, the fighter wing eventually acquired one male squadron, in part as replacement of a female squadron previously sent to Stalingrad. Alexander Gridnev, the unit's second permanent wing commander, recently presented his controversial memoirs to Reina Pennington, Russian history professor and retired U.S. Air Force captain, for translation into English.

Women in War and Resistance

Women in War and Resistance PDF Author: Kazimiera J. Cottam
Publisher: Focus
ISBN: 9781585101603
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book is a collection of one hundred brief biographies of WWII Soviet female air force, infantry and navy personnel, as well as women partisans and leaders of urban resistance. About one million women served in the Soviet Armed Forces during WWII, yet their significant contribution to victory in that war has, so far, received insufficient attention. Publications in English have been limited to Soviet airwomen and are based on recent interviews with a handful of survivors. Unfortunately, most of these publications contain errors of fact and in some cases trivialize and sensationalize the subject. This collection includes one hundred brief biographies of WWII Soviet female air force, infantry and navy personnel, as well as women partisans and leaders of urban resistance, recipients of the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union (HSU) and the Order of Glory I Class. As indicated in this collection, in the ground forces women distinguished themselves as medical personnel, political officers, tank crew members, machine gunners and snipers. Among decorated women snipers whose biographies appear in the book was Lyudmila Pavlichenko. Invited by Eleanor Roosevelt to tour the United States, she was the first Soviet citizen to be received at the White House and visited Canada, too; a Winchester rifle with an optical sight, now on display at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow, was presented to her in Toronto. Also included in the book were biographies of four participants in the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), including the incomparable Rozaliya Zemlyachka, deputy Prime Minister during WWII, and Raisa Azarkh, senior medical officer, who met Dr. Normal Bethune, a famous Canadian (who died tragically in China in 1939) while they both served in Spain, during the Spanish Civil War.

Heroines of the Soviet Union 1941–45

Heroines of the Soviet Union 1941–45 PDF Author: Henry Sakaida
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780966512
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 155

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Book Description
When the Great Patriotic War began many women volunteered for the armed forces, but most of them were rejected. They were steered towards nursing or other supportive roles. Many determined women managed to enter combat by first volunteering as field medics and nurses, then simply picking up a gun during the battle, and charging boldly into the line of fire. In the area of aviation, women also contributed greatly to the war effort. In rickety biplanes, they flew bombing missions at night, without parachutes; their only protection was the darkness. This book tells the stories of the brave women that were awarded the Soviet Union's most prestigious title Hero of the Soviet Union for their bravery in protecting their homeland.