For Tolstoi, this qualifies as an "O. Henry surprise-type ending" since you aren't expecting the wealthy merchant to sacrifice his own life for that of his lowly serf. This seems especially true since Tolstoi gives you several examples throughout the story of how the master undervalues his loyal servant.

For example, Tolstoi tells you that he is underpaid even for a serf. Also, his shrewd master always manages to manipulate and maneuver the servant into buying his goods from him, instead of from the store in the village, by making it look like he is doing him a favor in the process. This way he can overcharge for everything and thereby takes back what little money he is paying his servant anyway. The servant is well aware of this but is resigned to the situation.

Another interesting thing is how they get into a life-threatening situation in the first place. The workaholic merchant decides to press on at night in a severe blizzard, rather than remain safe in a farmhouse they have happened on in the snow, because he is impatient to get on to his next deal, and doesn't want to miss out on a possible opportunity.

I thought the time-obsessed businessman was primarily a late 20th century invention, but not so. The wealthy landowner and businessman regards even a few lost moments of time as unacceptable, and so they venture out into the fatal storm. They get lost in the driving and trackless snow on the way to the next town.

Tolstoi describes this poignantly. At several points, the master is certain they have come back to where they started and so are just going in circles, but the snow is coming down so hard that the horse carriage's tracks have already been covered up, and so he can't be sure. At that point he realizes the situation is hopeless.

Finally, the master parks the horse and carriage under a tree and they huddle together and try to survive until morning. But only the servant survives, his wealthy master in the end sacrificing his own life for that of his servant, by deciding to keep his servant warm instead of himself.

I, too, have to disagree with this 'english class' in their dull-assesment of this story. This must be a very young class of students who haven't experienced enough of human nature to fully appreciate and understand the complexity and beauty of the 2 characters in this wonderfully touching story. This is the first story that has ever made me weep openly while reading. The second, also by Tolstoy, was Strider: The Story of a Horse. If you liked Master and Man, you must find this one! That's why I'm here today; looking to replace my lost copy.

I felt I had to respond to the above comment by saying that this is a masterfully written short story and a moving account of a Master who makes the ultimate sacrifice, whether knowing it or not, to his lowly, faithful servant. The story contrasts well the attitudes and lives of rich masters and their voluntary slaves.

This book is clearly written, and covers many of the fundamental ideas behind successfully launching an attack against an enemy king. The Author has selected many classic games that do a good job of illustrating the basic principles that set an attack up for success instead of failure (how to open up the center to get at un uncastled king, sacrificing plays to open up a castled king with few or poor defenders, etc...).

At just over 200 pages, using reasonably large font, this book is a managable size for someone seeking an introduction to the mysteries of systematically attacking the king. The drawback to this is that, while the games often beautifully illustrate the ideas and principles for conducting an attack, this book really is an introduction. For the best treatment of attacking the king, ART OF ATTACK by Vladimir Vulkovic (everyman chess publishing) it the undisputed source for becoming a master of the kingside attack. As it is much larger, it more thouroughly covers what THE KING IN JEOPARDY does, and touches on many additional, important issues. However, THE KING IN JEOPARDY is a fine book to jump in with and start adding some really exciting battles to your chess game. Last thought: Both these books require a good introductory knowledge of tactics in order to reap their rewards. If you are new to tactics in chess then I would suggest either CHESS TACTICS FOR THE TOURNAMENT PLAYER (same author) or WINNING CHESS TACTICS by Yasser Sierrawan, before launching into this book.

I love this whole series. (I ignore the first two books of the series, which are for rank beginners to learn the moves. Start with the Tactics book, then Attacking the King, then Chess Strategy, and Endgame Facts.) A simple four volume course to play chess at the expert (1700) level. Listen, I am not the most talented chess player, and was 1100 on the ICC for months, losing to my friends. I decided to study or to stop playing. I read Silman, Nimzovitch, others and none helped; it was too hard for a dummy like me. This was my last-ditch effort (I figured it worked for school kids in Russia, and I was OK at homework.) It worked. By the time I was through volume 2, I was 1600+. I am in volume 3, so the full impact should go to 1700, as promised in the ads :) A simple effective chess intro. This, and Fred Reinfeld's combo books for practice are all you need to get pretty good at chess, then move on to other skills -- leaving a good chess game in your back pocket for fun now and then :) I only gave this book 4 stars because, of the series, its the most dull, and kind of meanders on the point sometimes. Less like a scheduled lesson, and more like a collage of king-attack examples. I found myself drifting off at times. But its an invaluable part of a GREAT course.

My original review above was too hasty as the layout of this book differed from the previous books in this series. Upon further reflection I cannot recommend a better book than this for improving your play once you have already mastered elementary tactical techniques. There are 45 game examples clearly explained with words and sentences, not just symbols, and this makes the book very readable. Yes, the chosen examples are old, but these are the positions you need to master before going on to study more advanced strategical concepts. There are also 36 test problems to solve. This book is the best of the Lev Alburt series.

While I found this book interesting, I felt no sense of lose when it ended. Dr. Stollman seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time in describing Eva, but I found nothing particularly illuminating about her soul or the story teller's, Joseph. So, how exactly are we drawn into the 'illuminated soul?'
During parts of the book, the author feels compelled to describe research that he is doing, something that I not only had little interest in, but found rather distracting from the main story.
In the end, when she leaves with the doctor, we are left to wonder what happened to her. Joseph hints that he now holds the great treasure that she brought with her when she ended up in Canada. Is this the ending that was suppose to be a breath catcher?

This gem-like story of a mysterious woman who comes to live with a Jewish family is written in lyrical, crystalline prose. We are treated to exquisitely drawn characters. The place and times are richly delineated and are replete with historical detail. The denouement is not fully realized, yet the pleasure I found reading this novel was real, and the flaw in plot development does not extinguish the lingering questions of spirituality raised.
In some ways it is unfortunate that "Everything is Illuminated" was published about the same time as Stollman's work of similar title. The two works are profoundly dissimiliar- and I fear that Foer's hysterically funny book overshadows this elegant piece. Ironically, I found both efforts benfit from being read back to back, as different lenses on Jewish/immigrant life experience.

Stollman creates a marvelous work of fiction in "The Illuminated Soul." His characters are so real that they acquire a life of their own. Joseph, through whose eyes we see the story, is a noted scientist in the field of neuroanatomy who has written a book called "The Illuminated Soul." Thus, we have a book within a book. His brother Asa, is blind. Both men are unmarried and take care of each other. For them as for the story, the past overshadows the present. Their mother Adele was an earthy woman who supported her sons as a kosher caterer. Their lives are forever changed by a vistor, the luminous Eva Higashi. It is through the power of these characters that the story affects us.

Stollman's prose is among some of the most lyrical and affecting. His concluding paragraph is stunning, "For a short while, a long time ago, we were like those celestial beings, arrayed in the higher realms, looking out over the heavens, and we saw so much farther than we had ever imagined." He writes from the transforming magic love exerts.

The historical detail makes us believe that Stollman is an antiquarian of the highest order. The devotional aspects of the Jewish Apocrypha give us a real feel of this community in Canada. Stollman is masterful in this sense.

The story somewhat falls apart for me with the ending. Trying not to give the ending away, we are asked to believe that Joseph was able to execute the story's final act without his mother intervening, Eva discovering this prior to her departure or returning to rectify it, or his brother discovering and making some intervention. Perhaps I'm a bit too logical for the conclusion of this wonderful dreamscape. Unfortunately, the ending is the only false note in an otherwise exquisite novel! Even so, there are so many strengths here, that it is a great and pleasurable reading experience, one not to be missed.

I bougnt this book with the intention to understand the Benoni.
Woof... just a foot beside the bull's eye!
In fact, this book is a serious review of all the lines with short evaluations and up-to-date infos. But I believe it is not for the under Expert level and it surely is of no help if you don't already know the opening.

This is a great book to study the Benoni. I love playing black, and I do believe that this defence is one the black's best. However, it's very easy for white to disrupt before black even sets it up. If black plays c5, expecting white to advance his pawn to d5, white can simply dxc5. Classical theory is against white's decision, since you aren't supposed to exchange center pawns for side pawns. But with one move, white has completely destroyed any chances for black to set up the Benoni. I play a modified version of the Benoni that is also similar to the King's Indian Defence. Instead of focusing on closing the c and d files, I try to close the d and e files. I only play e6 and d6 first, then wait for white to advance, then close the center. But to me, e5 is the most important square on the board to control, so fight for that square! If black can control that square, he can launch a kingside attack much easier than white can.

Go over to the review on The Complete Dragon/Edward Gufeld by the reader from LA and you have an exact review of this book also. I bought both based on the reviews. Lev Psakhis' advice in the opening of The Complete Benoni is that Black has the Sicilian Defense against PK4 openings, but little defense against PQ4, other than the lines of this system. With that out of the way, he proceeds with rare moves for white after 1 D4 Nf6, 2 C4 C5, 3 D5 E6, labeling them as other than Nc3. The variations are many and exquisitely detailed. His commentary is brief and cryptic, letting the variations (and the reader's understanding of positional play) speak for themselves in terms of analysis, as it should be for a complete understanding of the aesthetic of chess. The book was initially frustrating for me as an intermediate level player, but the more time I spend with it the more I learn.

I have been looking for a good book on the Qh4 line of scotch opening for sometime now. It is certainly a wild choice for black! This book does a good job on spending time on each variation (Horwitz, Modern, Fraser, Qd3), but it does not explain them very well. The book gives the variation, a short explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of the move and then shows a game or two with that line. A great improvement of the book would be more explaination of the variations.

Good values of the book: 1. A good number of diagrams for the line in discussion (a few more would be perfect). 2. All of the white and black choices covered. 3. Good for advanced players who want an indepth study of the Qh4 line.

Bad points of the book: 1. The organization of the book is alittle awkward. (But understandably so due to the many variations) 2. The "covered" choices are not explained indepth ie( consequences, strengths) 3. Not good for inexperienced players. 4. Very expensive for what you get.

This book certainly does cover the Qh4 line better than "The scotch game" by Peter Wells, who practically dismisses the move. In general, this book is only "ok". It could be improved on, and the price is too high. My opinion is, if you want to study the Qh4 line and are not on a tight budget, then buy this book because it is practically the only book on it.

I have to disagree somewhat with the other review of this book. I agree that it is a bit pricey but it is also available at lower prices. Consider that the Scotch isn't that popular and combine that with the fact that 4...Qh4 is very unpopular and you have a very small sales potential for this book. Add to that that it is authored by a world class grandmaster and that it is an encyclopaedic tome of all variations that follow in this opening. Further, there is nothing else on the market that has the information contained in this book. It is hard to see how this book could be inexpensive since high volume sales is out of the question. Although the product details on this site list the book as 208 pages, it is actually 272 pages.

The book itself is an exhaustive presentation of all the variations that can occur after 4...Qh4. Since this information is available nowhere else, this book is a treasure if you plan to defend with black or play against it with white.

A couple of observations: The defense is quite seductive because it seems to give black the advantage in all but two of white's responses. It's fun to whip the Queen out to h4 and threaten the pawn at e4 and in fact white allows you to play Qxe4 in many of white's approaches to this defense. 5 Nc3 seems to be about equal. The problem for black is that 5 Nb5 is so strong for white. White can easily let black play Qxe4+, develop a piece defending the check and force black to play Kd8 to defend against Nxc7+. White is down a pawn but black has his king in the middle and his rook on a8 with dim prospects of entering the game. In my database, white wins about 70% of these games. To be fair, there are better ways for black to play than Qxe4+ in the Nb5 variation but the Nxc7+ threat is cramping and makes for an unpleasant game for black. In the end, Gutman finds drawing chances in even the most difficult lines of this very complex defense.

This book is obviously not intended for the inexperienced player, it is for someone who is seriously working on their opening and is at the point where they are working on small parts of an overall plan. I feel that the short assessments of the variations provided by Gutman are sufficient and anyway the sort of explanation that would be required for beginning chessplayers would expand the size of this book to 600 pages or so.

For someone committed to playing the Scotch as white, I think this book is a must. Most Scotch sources just gloss over the Steinitz variation and the variation can be very dangerous (it scores nearly 50% overall in my database). Much of the old published analysis is faulty. Gutman's 2001 book is the last best word. If you decide to play 4...Qh4 as Black you need this book. Gutman has been playing this defense in correspondence games and has included some (all?) of that information in the book.

For awhile I have been playing the Nimzowitsch defense (1 e4 Nc6)and after the fairly common 2. d4 e5, if I face the fairly uncommon 3. Nf3 (dxe5 and d5 being by far the most common) , when I have nothing better than 3...exd4, transposing into the Scotch after 4. Nxd4. So I needed a defense to the Scotch. Someone whose opinion I respect suggested looking into the Steinitz. I have now done that. My conclusion: For my purposes it is too much material to try to learn for a variation I don't meet that often and playing against 5Nb5 is no fun. I opted for 4 Bb4+.

This is a well organized, nicely produced book that delivers exactly what you should be expecting in a large book devoted to an obscure variation. If it fits your needs, a strong buy recommendation.

Stefan, the child of Holocaust survivors, is denied knowledge of his own identity and family history. His parents and Uncle Sasha, who have suffered endless horrors during the Holocaust, conspire to protect Stefan from the secret of his heritage. They deny their religion, their ancestors, and their heritage, leaving an empty void in its place. Stefan's relationship with his parents is a metaphor for that emptiness. There is no warmth, love, or strong family ties in his relationship to them. When he tries to learn about his aunt, grandparents, and family history his inquiries are rebuffed. Stefan, in turn, rebuffs his parents' attempts to stay close to him. After their separation he rejects them, prefering to live with his uncle.
He denies his parents their right to happiness when they try to move on in their lives, although they are obviously both doing much better apart.
This haunting story indicates that the pain and sorrow of the Holocaust survives, and impacts the life and destiny of so many generations after the event.

Anyone who has ever tried to come to terms with himself, to understand himself will identify with this compelling novel and its plot. Keeping secrets--even for supposedly "good" reasons--can be so destructive. This is just part of what Raphael's novel is trying to say. More and more, it seems as though there is a need for so many of us to find some link to our past; often, we find the path to that discovery blocked. Stefan faces just this sort of stumbling block in the novel. As he reaches to unmask the secrets, he is also in a process of self discovery. His growing awareness of himself as a gay young man may now mean that he has secrets of his own to keep. Triumphantly, however, the novel is not ultimately about guilt or shame. It is about discovery; it is about taking the results of discovery and making them your own. Stefan does, in fact, become a better man because of the search he has undertaken. This novel stays with you; its impact and intensity increase in the weeks and even months after it has been completed. I know I will read it again--I can pay no higher compliment to a book or its author.

(Planeta.com Journal) -- About a century ago the early years of cinema witnessed the creation of veritable masterpieces. For more than a generation (1980s-1930s) filmmakers produced seminal works that defined the very language of the medium. So at the turn of this century, how do we recognize the equivalent works in "new media" -- computers, the web and other digital compositions? A scientist and theoretician, Lev Manovich guides the way in his exceptional book.

New media links content and interface, providing an unlimited number of ways of accessing a work. This is the norm of the digital age. Manovich argues "modern media is the new battlefield for the competition between database and narrative." (p. 234) But new media does not begin with the Web. In fact, there's no better place to begin than with the 1929 avant garde film classic, Dziga Vertov's "Man with a Movie Camera," which serves as a guide in an innovative prologue.

Later Manovich sums up the achievement of this classic film: "Vertov is able to achieve something that new media designers still have to learn -- how to merge database and narrative into a new form (p. 243).

The Language of New Media offers a rigorous theory of new media. The author discusses new media's reliance on traditions, such as the use of the rectangular frame. He also demonstrates how concepts from film theory and art history play a vital role in understanding where we stand today. This book is highly recommended.

According to the back cover introduction, "Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new media". He does this by describing the developing history of available media as a context for understanding the current digital electronics technology.

On the media of today he notes: "One general effect of the digital revolution is that the avant-garde aesthetic strategies came to be embedded in the command and interface metaphors of the computer software. The contemporary computer media are actually the past avant-garde materialized!"

As is perhaps clear from the book's title, "The Language of New Media" is primarily about the communication 'languages' that the various media make available through their existence. A language, in the sense that Mr. Manovich uses the term, is a collection of methods[in a media-tool/medium context] and their effect on that which may be communicated by a particular work. A wide range of examples, from published or exhibited creations, are cited to help describe the fruits of using a particular method/context that he details.

The strongest recurring theme in the book is how it deals with the history of cinematic language. Cinema is the media which brings under it's umbrella the greatest range of production methodology, so comes the closest to tying the whole text together into a coherent narrative. Otherwise, the book would tend to be more a kind of dictionary of available media methodologies/effects/attributes, each with their own implication towards constructing a sensual or conceptual experience.

Marshall Mcluhan's point, that "The medium is the message", may well serve as the best description of the contents of this book. For those seeking an analysis on the "meaning of the messages", that the media artists convey, it is probably best to seek additional books as a supplement to this one.

That Lev Manovich's The Language of New Media is a risk-taking and stimulating contribution to the discourse surrounding new media is evident even before page one. The book's prologue consists of short extracts indicating Manovich's central premises that will be fleshed out in the text. As short polemical notes, the quotations serve to engender argument as well as energize, performing the new thinking hinted at in Manovich's remarkable treatment of new media. By the time Manovich has thanked the various Internet mailing lists where he regularly shared excerpts of his text prior to its publication, and the hardware he used when writing The Language of New Media, the reader is attentive to the original way in which Manovich intends to deal with his vast subject. Given this book's title it bears asking what comprises the new media? Manovich enumerates them early on-"Web sites, virtual worlds, virtual reality (VR), multimedia, computer games, interactive installations, computer animation, digital video, cinema, and human-computer interfaces" (8-9). What, then, are the new media's "language"? By language, Manovich intends both the diverse conventions used by new media practitioners to organize data and structure the user's experience, and the various discourses that surround the new media. Grounded in an analysis of the ways in which new media have appropriated the forms and conventions of older art and communications media, Manovich's central concern, and that of his book's first five chapters, is the influence of cinema's language on the new media; the final chapter examines the inverse. (The link to cinema should not be over-stated however, as Manovich never fails to include other relevant precedents ranging from Renaissance oil painting to Marey's photographic gun to WWII radar technology.) Each chapter concludes with compelling case studies that serve to define and elaborate the theories advanced. The contribution this remarkable book makes to the existing literature on new media and related topics is a product of the author's wide-ranging expertise and intellectual rigor. (Manovich holds advanced degrees in cognitive psychology and visual culture and has been working with computer media for almost twenty years as an artist, designer, animator, computer programmer, and teacher.) In assessing "new media objects" (his term), their technologies, and their style, Manovich is always mindful of how social, economic and cultural considerations inform and are informed by the very technologies and styles which they consider. Manovich studiously avoids ahistorical generalizations by asking what is different between more recent technologies and those preceding them; fortunately he does not hesitate to frequently conclude "not much." Overall, it is hard to over-estimate the importance of The Language of New Media to the field of the same name, as it is the first rigorous and far-reaching theorization of the subject. Readers from expert to novice will almost certainly be thankful for Manovich's studious attention to definitions, both those commonly (mis)used and those coined by the author. The Language of New Media is required reading not only for those concerned with the discourses surrounding new media, but also for anyone critically engaged with contemporary art and culture.

(A longer version of this review was first published in CAA.Reviews, August 2001.)

There is something unusual in this book in terms of plot and the idiosyncrasies of the characters involved. The main character, Aryeh Alexander, is a small boy, intellectually gifted, who is surrounded by eccentric individuals: a neurotic mother, a loving father obsessed by Ancient Mesopotamia, a cantor and his sister both victims of the holocaust, and an ill-fated girl destined to die at an early age. Aryeh is involved in the misfortunes of all characters as an outsider, an a spectator. When reaching his coming of age, he secluded himself from the rest of the world in order to settle the confusion in his mind, life, and world. The author is master of a clear, beautiful, and poetic prose. The reader is left with the impression that this novel might represent the beginning of a future literary production with an overall more embracng depth and weight.

The Euphrates River, in historical contexts, conjures up Mesopotamia, the origins of Judaism and all that. Unfortunately, this book only conjured up a disfunctional family in North America and barely even scraped the surface of the many ways in which an author could use the symbolic nature of the longing for Eden and paradise. The only paradise for the main character was the time he sequestered himself in his bedroom, unable be openly gay with his family. I kept waiting for the Euphrates part and was terribly disappointed to finally hear about it as a hypothetical journey of a relative's inner longings. Oh, well. The Jewish-gay literary scene is fantastic, and more needs to be written, but not more ho-hum faux Portnoy-esque novels.

exquisite rhythmic prose takes one along a journey of a child's growth spiritually and in reality a delicious read

Having read and enjoyed some of Lev Raphael's short stories, I was curious to see how his themes of gay identity, Jewish identity and academic life would translate to the mystery genre. In a word: UGH! Against the backdrop of this silly and poorly constructed mystery, those themes seem very forced or as if they were mere afterthoughts.
Despite the author's noble attempt to portray a gay couple in a believable state of domestic bliss and strife, (rather than the usual overly glamorized or repulsive caricatures) Nick & Stephan's relationship is barely developed and not at all compelling - if we were not informed that the two were life partners, we might think that they were roommates who simply got on each other's nerves. Raphael's presentation of the couple's flair and love of beautiful, civilized things as a beacon in the otherwise dull college town is a cute premise, but the lavish descriptions of home-cooked gourmet meals served with caviar, fine art on every wall, and extensive world travel are simply ridiculous. These flights of fancy simply make the characters less believable.
Other details and characters are equally preposterous - namely, the hip female cousin who draws on her experiences as a former fashion model to help Nick solve the crime. The dialogue is not realistic and often very trite. Raphael's use of metaphor is particularly painful - when referring to the writing style of a former student who is also on the wrestling team, the author proclaims "His prose was as lean and powerful as he was." Yak! The story moves very slowly and then seems to gloss over important details. The characters are largely incredible and the writing is surprisingly amateurish compared to some of the author's short stories.
One final gripe - without giving anything away, I'll advise readers to keep their eyes open for a wanna-be witty line towards the end of the book that is so obviously lifted from the 1930s movie "The Women". Does Raphael think that no one but he has seen this campy classic adored by so many gay men? This whole story really just falls flat - I think the author is out of his league and should stick to the short-story genre.

Lev Raphael - Enjoy Lev's academic mysteries and especially get a kick out of the Michigan detail. Brought back memories of working at a teachers credit union for 18 years and have heard many an outrageous tale as told by professors. Lev pins the tail right on. As an aside, Raphael has got to be the most photogenic of authors I have seen in a LONG time.

Mr. Raphael begins his delightful "Nick Hoffman Mystery Series" with a book that sets the tone for a series of truly entertaining reads. "Lets Get Criminal" introduces the reader to Nick and his long-term lover Stefan and to the unlikely setting for murder, the campus of the State University of Michigan.

Like Miss Marple's village of St. Mary Mead, the campus, usually a quiet and stately institution of academia, is placed into an uproar over the murder of a particularly disliked professor and at the center is Nick's lover Stefan who, through a series of coincidences, is considered to be suspect number one by the truly detestable homophobic campus police investigator, Detective Valley. Nick has no choice but to try to find the real murderer before Stefan is arrested.

Mr. Raphael has succeeded in creating characters that you get to know and relate to easily and placed them in a setting that can be recognized immediately by anyone who has attended college. I, personally believe that, besides the mystery aspect of the story, the detailing of the day to day lives of Nick and Stefan is an intricate part of what made this book so satisfing for me. The descriptions of their home, meals, lovemaking, etc. gave me the feeling of being proud to be gay and of knowing that there is more to life than the next bar/club/bathhouse.

I heartily recommend this and all of Mr. Raphael's "Nick Hoffman" books to anyone who loves good characters, a witty read, and a delicious mystery!

When I saw this title I was hoping, against hope, that finally, the history of World War II in the former Soviet Union was coming into the light. That light being one of an objective look into the events surrounding the most titanic clash of arms in history. What we have, I am sorry to say, is something not far removed from the bad old days of "cold war" Russian propoganda. I find it hard to believe that the Wehrmacht, appearantly stumbled along from victory to victory against a well thought out plan by STAVKA to lure the Wehrmacht to Moscow and then destroy it. Fugates' narrative is 'almost totally lacking in description of the massive failing in the Red Army's training, organization, logistics, leadership, etc., etc., etc. The Germans, with appearantly inept planning, hopelessly divided comanders, and an interfereing Hitler, were snookered by Zhukov (who appearantly planned all this in a Feb 1941 wargame). I'm sorry folk, while we know the Germans had problems, it is vveeerryy hard to swallow Fugates' arguments. His saving grace is his description of the purges and its effect on the Red Army's officer corps. If he had only solidly linked these events to the hopeless performance of the Red Army from June 22 to the end of Nov 1941 he might of been closer to the mark. I have no doubt that someone, somewhere, will eventually write a truly definitive account of the invasion of the Soviet Union without either a German 'apologist' or Soviet 'trumpet' bias. It is not this one.

The authors have reconstructed, from circumstantial evidence, a revisionist interpretation of Red Army prewar planning and early war strategy. This is an excellent attempt to look at "the other side of the hill" (95% of what's out there being narrated from the German point of view. The authors know their material well, but the specifics of their case (a Soviet master plan based on February 1941 wargames kept secret from all but a handful of generals) hinges on only a few collateral documents. They can document a general similarity of Soviet operations with what they believe was the outcome of the wargame, but cannot conclusively link the two, except by arguing that Zhukov and Timoshenko were at the wargame and conducted grand strategy--ergo they must have employed the strategy from the game. This is dangerous ground upon which to rest your entire thesis. Nonetheless, this book is valuable for approaching the first weeks and months of the war from a Soviet perspective, and makes the point quite strongly that the Red Army had already thrown German operations off their timetable within the first month of the war.

This remarkable book takes a completely fresh look at the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, using the Archives of the Soviet Ministry of Defence, the Soviet Army and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The authors are Brian Fugate, a distinguished American military historian, and Lev Dvoretsky, a retired Russian colonel and military historian.

They present their findings in their opening words: 'It is an enduring myth of the twentieth century that the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 caught Stalin and the Red Army totally by surprise.' Their work demolishes this myth, sponsored by Khrushchev and repeated by virtually every historian since. For example, they found the logbook of Stalin's appointments: he had meetings with thirteen political and military leaders on 21 June, and with nineteen on 22 June, which disproves Khrushchev's claim that panic immobilised Stalin after the invasion.

The book shows that the invasion did not catch Stalin and the Soviet High Command off guard: they had developed a skilful, innovative and highly secret plan to oppose it. This plan ensured that the Soviet Union would not only survive the biggest and most violent invasion in history, but would also defeat it. They developed the key elements of the strategy during three war games held in January and February 1941, probably the most important war games ever played.

The Red Army considered war games the ultimate form of strategic planning, the best way to test alternative strategies. General Pavlov, Commander of the Western Front, advocated a forward strategy of defending Bialystok, which jutted 150 miles into the Nazi-controlled part of Poland, following with a counterattack into Germany. This strategy meant placing the Red Army's main forces near the border. Marshal Timoshenko, commissar for defence, and General Zhukov, head of the Kiev Special Military District, proposed placing their main forces deep in Soviet territory for an active strategic defence. This would create the conditions for a counterattack by the strategic reserve that would sweep the invader out of the Soviet Union and destroy the core of his army. The general staff put the current military situation on the map board, then launched the Nazi attack and played out the moves, testing the two strategies.

The first game tested Pavlov's strategy. Zhukov led the German forces and broke through Pavlov's defences, surrounding and annihilating them. The second game tested the Zhukov-Timoshenko strategy. Zhukov led the Red Army against Pavlov's 'German' forces which had advanced deep into the Soviet Union. Zhukov counterattacked, outflanked and defeated Pavlov's forces. The day after the Politburo received the reports of these games, it appointed Zhukov chief of the general staff.

The authors discovered details of the third game in Timoshenko's and Zhukov's private papers. It tested a more developed version of the in-depth strategy, with a defence zoned in three echelons (see Map). The first, tactical, echelon was behind the border. The first strategic echelon was 200 to 300 miles behind the first, on the upper Dnepr. This launched a powerful counterattack against the southern flank of Army Group Centre as it crossed to the north of the Pripyat Marshes. The second strategic echelon was a mobile reserve, massed around Moscow, ready to attack the flanks of the enemy as he advanced towards Moscow. The plan worked in the game: the Red Army's forces were placed accordingly.

The Red Army carried out this strategy in July and August 1941. It successfully counterattacked the southern flank of Army Group Centre as it moved along the upper Dnepr, delaying its advance on Moscow. The delay enabled the forces in the second strategic echelon virtually to destroy Army Group Centre at Moscow in December. As a result of adopting this strategy, 'The war was essentially won in 1941 along the upper Dnepr and at Moscow.'

The authors conclude, 'the USSR was as well prepared for war in June 1941 as it possibly could have been.'