Five Circles of Hell. The Red Army in the Cauldrons

After the June 1941 catastrophe—the defeat of Soviet forces in the border battle and unprecedented encirclement operations carried out by the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front—many believed the Red Army could no longer stand up to the devastating blows of German tank wedges. Millions of RKKA soldiers and commanders perished in “cauldrons” near Kyiv, Vyazma, Bryansk, and Melitopol; Crimea was lost; Sevastopol was cut off from the mainland; Leningrad was blockaded. It seemed nothing could stop Hitler’s advance on Moscow…

What were the main reasons for the defeats of 1941? Why did the Germans succeed, again and again, in encircling entire armies? Who is to blame for these monstrous routs and the colossal losses of the RKKA? And why, in November 41, for the first time during the entire blitzkrieg period, the German war machine faltered and froze just 30 kilometers from the Kremlin? Who stopped the Wehrmacht at the gates of Moscow—the “General Mud,” “General Frost,” or the generals of the Red Army? How was the collapsed front revived, and where did the strength for counterattacks come from?… In Alexey Isaev’s bestseller, you’ll find answers to all these questions.