Avenging Angels: Soviet women snipers on the Eastern front (1941–45) by Lyuba Vinogradova (PDF)

Description

“Lyuba Vinogradova is a historian with a writer’s dramatic eye. By personally interviewing many of the Russian women who as teenagers during WW2 took up arms to defend the motherland, her story becomes undeniably poignant and powerful” MARTIN CRUZ SMITH, author of Gorky ParkThe girls came from every corner of the U.S.S.R. They were factory workers, domestic servants, teachers and clerks, and few were older than twenty. Though many had led hard lives before the war, nothing could have prepared them for the brutal facts of their new existence: with their country on its knees, and millions of its men already dead, grievously wounded or in captivity, from 1942 onwards thousands of Soviet women were trained as snipers.Thrown into the midst of some of the fiercest fighting of the Second World War they would soon learn what it was like to spend hour upon hour hunting German soldiers in the bleak expanses of no-man’s-land; they would become familiar with the awful power that comes with taking another person’s life; and in turn they would discover how it feels to see your closest friends torn away from you by an enemy shell or bullet.In a narrative that travels from the sinister catacombs beneath the Kerch Peninsula to Byelorussia’s primeval forests and, finally, to the smoking ruins of the Third Reich, Lyuba Vinogradova recounts the untold stories of these brave young women. Drawing on diaries, letters and interviews with survivors, as well as previously unpublished material from the military archives, she offers a moving and unforgettable record of their experiences: the rigorous training, the squalid living quarters, the blood and chaos of the Eastern Front, and those moments of laughter and happiness that occasionally allowed the girls to forget, for a second or two, their horrifying circumstances. Avenging Angels is a masterful account of an all-too-often overlooked chapter of history, and an unparalleled account of these women’s lives.Translated from the Russian by Arch Tait

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Having just finished reading Avenging Angels, I thought I would write a few lines to give my thoughts on this work. Being a professionally amateur historian, the subject of the role of female snipers in the Soviet Army during WW2 was of great interest. I found this translation of Vinogradova’s work to be compelling and interesting. She addresses the enlistment, training and deployment of women snipers in a broad, readable way. Various snipers are covered throughout the book; their recollections of combat, of friends lost and of a return to their homes after the war…where many were looked upon as having been only “front line wives” for the men at the front when nothing could have been further from the truth. The book kept my attention and enlightened a fascinating aspect of World War 2 that I had not previously considered.The author chose to bounce between soldiers in the book instead of concentrating on a single soldier’s story at one time. This made keeping track of the names of each sniper slightly cumbersome as many names were similar. But this is a minor detraction from what I found to be an excellent work. I would give this 4 1/2 stars if possible…

⭐This book is a bit of a mixed-bag. Vinogradova, in many cases, got the last interviews with this generation of women before they passed. Their first-hand accounts are invaluable. In terms of scholarly history, however, she falters. She seems unwilling, or unable, to draw on the newly-public official records which are offering so many new perspectives on the war. She instead fills in her bibliography with secondary sources, often either outdated or popular history works. In some cases, this book feels like an afterthought to her “Defending the Motherland” – a story about a sniper captured by the Nazis diverts for several paragraphs to a story about an unrelated pilot’s capture, before circling back to say that she doesn’t really know what the sniper went through. It’s confusing and unhelpful. As other reviewers have mentioned, she does jump back and forth between different girls’ stories frequently. This, I think, is a trait of Russian writing in general, but it does demand the reader’s concentration. Some of her arguments about the Red Army and the individual girl’s experiences I found unconvincing and not properly supported.This is really the only, and therefore best, book about the USSR’s female snipers in English, but it’s definitely flawed. Read it if you’re very interested in the subject, but take it with a grain of salt and don’t let it be the only thing you read.

⭐This was an interesting book, but not what I hoped for. Although the subject was far different, at the end I couldn’t avoid thinking that it could have been about a rough year at a boarding school: poor food, unpleasant living conditions, hard work, brief romances, separation from home, and friendships made and lost. Being more of an oral history than a rigorously researched examination of countless other aspects of being a sniper in the Red Army during World War II, it focused on the things that were most memorable for the women involved such as friends killed or wounded and luxuries encountered in Germany. As a consequence it doesn’t offer much of interest to someone like me who wanted to learn more about the details of Soviet military service in general, and its sniper program specifically.The one exception to the mostly personal anecdotes was the author’s examination of the story (myth?) of Lyudmila Pavlichenko who was sent to the US during the war to help drum up more support for the Soviet Union and action against Germany. As the author points out, there is good reason to suspect that her exploits were embellished for propaganda purposes.

⭐Most of the existing books on Soviet snipers focus on one individual and their experiences. This book was written using information gleaned from diaries and interviews from dozens of snipers, which gives the reader a look at the individuals, as well as conditions as a whole. Information on training as well as their day to day job as snipers are chronicled as are the other jobs that they were “expected” to do as women. The survivors who contributed to this book also revealed the hardships suffered in the post-war Soviet Union by all it’s citizens.The author did a good job of writing this as a narrative first, and a history text second, making this a very readable book.

⭐The personal accounts of the young Russian women/girls who fought in WWII are amazing. I learned more than I could have imagined.

⭐This account of Soviet women snipers in WWII is marred by the kind of translation that picks out three sentences, puts them together and calls them a paragraph. There are a few powerful anecdotes such as the teenaged snipers and their visit with a real, live mother. This one is for history buffs only.

⭐Interesting stories of heroics as well as sadness. It surprised me how many women took up arms and became excellent and extremely dangerous markswomen.

⭐Anyone who thinks a female can’t shoot or fight needs to read this book. You will be enlightened and humbled.

⭐Although the book has unquestionably a great human interest and says a lot about the Russian women who fought as snipers during WWII, it is not really a book on snipers as such. The author has no interest whatsoever nor knows anything at all about equipment, weapons, ammunition or tactics employed by the soviet snipers, and it is deeply disappointing for a reader focused on these very questions. This is not a fault of the work in itself, but of the expectatives the reader might have about it.

⭐Excellent,moving and gripping.Could not put it down,it highlights a much overlooked aspect of the war and especially here in the West.Highly recommended.These girls,and they were girls,are worthy of a damn good film,in the West of course,Russians know about it all too well.Brilliant

⭐These brave woman who fought in the ww2 not only had to fight the Nazis but had to fight their own comrades from sexual abuse. These woman chose to go into hell and fight for their country. These brave,beautiful,heroic woman are the pride of Russia. This book gives a harrowing insight to what these woman endured at the front in ww2.

⭐Absorbing, interesting and unadorned accounts of women thrown into war. Told with down-to-earth honest testimonies of ordinary young women about sights, feelings, emotions and danger and coming to terms with their experiences.

⭐Gripping read, can tell that it’s been translated at times but doesn’t drag away from the story. Real stories that hit hard with the truth. Heart breaking at times but will have you laughing and smiling at others, it has everything.

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