The Soviet Soldier 1941-1945 Hardcover – June 1, 2011

Another very interesting and useful book of the publishing house Histoire and Collections. Beautiful edition. Paper of good quality, photos in color that show everything that collector of uniforms and militaries from II WW should see. And such a collector should see as much as possible because collecting Russian equipment is like walking in the minefield, specially for the beginners. Uniforms that are shown in the book seem to be all original, although it is common that they are identical copies of them or they exist after war uniforms that look exactly the same as the prewar. Delightful are, like usually in Histoire and Collections, personal items of soldiers that add human touch to the collection.The weakness of the book is "communist historiography". Author, against title, didn't show soviet soldier from II WW but soviet soldier from "Great Patriotic War" - strange, bizarre name invented by soviet propaganda, which goal was to cheat history. Soldiers are shown from June 1941. But soldier of Red Army didn't start II WW from 22 June 1941 but from 17 September 1939, when the attack on Poland had place. And after that was taking land of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and a part of Romania and attack on Finland - "The Winter war". From this period however there is no single photo of Russian soldier. Comrade Stalin would praise such a selective view on history :)DANIEL BIENEK

This is a typically high-quality book from H&C, as we've come to expect. Top quality paper, outstanding photography, great hardcover format in a perfect size. Loads of fantastic detail photos of original Soviet uniforms, field gear, and personal items carried by Russian soldiers, partisans, and officers. This is an invaluable resource for anyone doing WWII reenacting or just studying the Soviet Army in WWII.Two minor gripes; the type size and font used in the text parts of the book (not the captions) is too small and too thin against the stark white glossy paper, making it a little difficult for forty-seven-year-old eyes to read without a pair of serious magnifying reading glasses on! Even then, it's not an easy task - wish they would've used a larger, easier-to-read font. Also, some of the items are glossed over rather quickly as the book strives to cover an tremendous amount of ground within its pages. There's not a lot of detail given on the items shown, but due to the number of items shown, there simply wasn't enough room to do so.STILL, I highly recommend this one, excellent resource book that will prove itself to be invaluable.

Being an Eastern Front historian for over 27 years now, I feel compelled to choose The Soviet Soldier as my very first review on amazon. After the book Deutsche Soldaten by Agustin Saiz hit the market, which covers all German equiptment and uniforms of ww2, I immediately thought that a comparable work must come out that would cover the soviet side of ww2. Well behold! Here it is! This book is for anyone that has either elementary interest, or a life time of ww2 study under their belt. To begin, the cover and binding method is high class and the book has a feel of solid quality. With that said, the contents speak for themselves. Inside you will find any and all personal effects during the period of 1941-1945. Being more of a photo study, all uniforms and equiptment are mint condition originals, being pain stakingly Photographed on high quality gloss paper, showing even the most minute details. The author, Philippe Rio, did an excellent job in every aspect. If you purchase this book you will not be disappointed. My copy goes right next to Deutsche Soldaten as an indispensible piece to my Eastern Front library.

Philippe Rio has provided a first rate study of the Red Army of the U.S.S.R. from 1941 to 1945. The information provided in text, tables and imagery is very detailed and easily accessed. Each page is filled with information on the subject at hand, even to a selection of the buttons used on uniforms. There is so little wasted white space, it takes one much longer to read the pages of this fascinating book, which is a welcome change from most large format survey works. For the occasional to the professional historian this book comes highly recommended.Ken WeilerAuthor of "Why Normandy Was Won: Operation Bagration and the War in the East 1941 - 1945" and "The European Theater Anthology of World War II: Unique, Unknown and Interesting Information for those familiar with the Second World War."

Lots of real photos along with info at each photo.

It is expensive for me, but has the information I wanted. My only complaint is the typeface is either thin or faint making it hard for my eyes to read. The English is perfect though. Not the first book that I have read with a magnifying glass.

Little has been written about the Soviet army's role in WWII other than the big picture. This book helps to illustrate how they were armed and what their roles were. The details are sketchy, however, but it has many decent staged photos that show Soviet equipment, uniforms, medals, badges and rank insignias for the different branches of their armed forces. All in all, it's decent outline snapshot of the Soviet military. Well illustrated and very enjoyable for a subject that needs much more information.

An excellent resource for the collector of militaria or the reenactor looking for more information. While the book is by no means perfect, it has a few inaccuracies, it is a good reference. With a lack of information in English about the arms, uniforms and equipment of the Soviet soldier during World War Two, this is a good addition to the bookshelf.

recommended for history buffs

赤軍の軍服の基本的なことはこれでわかります、海軍・空軍のものも欲しいところです。

実物の軍服や装備品をモデルに着用させて写真で解説しています英語ですが写真とイラストがあるので分かりやすい、軍装コレクター、リエナクター(ヒストリカルゲーマー)におすすめ。

赤軍の生い立ち、スタフカを頂点とする赤軍の構成や各種兵科の説明から始まりタバコ、免許証、身分証明書など兵士が携行する小物から衣服、軍靴、装備品、歩兵が携行する小火器が現存する実物のカラー写真で紹介されています。勲章、1943年までの襟章、1943年からの肩章の種類等も詳しく説明されています。全176ページのうち100ページからはモデルが当時の装備品を着用して一人1〜2ページ使って鮮明なカラー写真で載っています。全てではありませんが後姿、細部のクローズアップも収録され大変親切な構成です。陸軍兵士は所属していた部隊名が表記されているのも興味深いです。赤軍らしく女性兵士も紹介されています。空軍のパイロットも紹介されていますが所属部隊名は書かれていません。海軍はありません。当時の兵士たちのモノクロのポートレイト写真も多数掲載されており当時の雰囲気が感じられます。大判で光沢上質紙が使われたハードカバー本値段（定価）以上の素晴らしい本だと思います。

As anyone who looks through my reviews will notice I'm a big fan of H&C titles, so when I saw that one dealing with the Soviet army of WW2 was being released I knew I had to have it. And I can say the book doesn't disappoint!The book is in the usual size of a Histoire and Collection title. It's also the usual format, with lots of colour photographs of uniforms and gear. This time you get detailed information on decorations, documents, arms of service insignia and badges of rank (with a brilliant table showing all the colours of the different arms and services). Both the early war and the late war variants are shown. Next are helmets, hats, coats, breeches, boots etc. Then equipment is dealt with, where you'll get all sorts of belts, pouches, water bottles and entrenching tools. There's a good section on hand weapons, showing rifles and carbines, submachineguns, pistols and revolvers, and light machine guns. And this is only the first part of the book, totalling just under 100 pages.The next part of the book is where the uniforms are depicted. They're shown by live models wearing the uniforms with all equipment and weapons. There'll be the inevitable closeup of interesting details. There's a fair selection of uniforms, both from the early war period and the late war period, to fill another 65+ pages. These include infantrymen, but also fighter pilots, a female medical officer, tank troopers and a despatch rider to name a few.I really think the book succeeds on all levels. The only criticism I can think of is that I would have wanted this book to have twice the pages. Then there could have been a chapter on heavy weapons (like heavy machine guns and mortars, and anti-tank rifles), and off course, more uniform examples. But as it is I'm really satisfied with it. It's a nice addition to the only other title in its sort: Stalin's War. But I do think The Soviet Soldier gives more details and much more information than the earlier one, and as such I think it's a great addition to my WW2 uniform library.