"Russia," observed the poet Tyuchev, "cannot be understood with the mind." The Battle of Stalingrad cannot be adequately comprehended through a typical examination. A purely military study of such a titanic struggle fails to convey the reality of the battlefield, just as Hitler's maps in the "Wolf's Lair" in Rastenburg isolated him in a fantasy world, far from the sufferings of his soldiers.
This book aims, and succeeds completely in this aim, to make us experience the troops' experiences on both sides with the help of a wealth of new information, especially from Russian archives. The variety of sources plays a crucial role in describing the unprecedented nature of the battle, as well as the consequences it had on all those who were trapped in it with no hope of escape.