BOOK REVIEW: Stumbling Colossus: The Red Army on the Eve of WWII

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 BOOK REVIEW:

Stumbling Colossus

The Red Army on the Eve of WWII by David Glantz


Stumbling Colossus, The Red Army on the Eve of WWII, by David M. Glantz is a counter-attack against revisionist history on the Eastern Front in the Russo-German War (1941-1945). It is extremely detailed with supporting archival data and details across the Red Army. The book is also logically assembled across warfighting functions in the lead up to ‘Operation Barbarossa’ and includes interesting sections on the Soviet Soldier, staff planning and rear services disposition. Stumbling Colossus, owing its genesis to revisionist history, is a slight deviation for the typical works of Glantz.

Stumbling Colossus is a frontal assault on revisionist history of the origins of war on the Eastern Front in WWII. In 1988 Viktor Rezun, under the pen name ‘Viktor Suvorov’ published Icebreaker: Who Started the Second World War? Apparently Rezun’s thesis, that Stalin was planning a preemptive strike against Germany, caused Glantz to write a rebuttal. Thus, Stumbling Colossus.

For this specific reason, I found it refreshing.  David M. Glantz, a powerful and important historian of the Red Army, is not a writer easy on any reader.

The thesis of Stumbling Colossus is that the Red Army was woefully ill prepared for between Germany. Having read many of Glantz’s previous works I knew what was in store for me: details, statistics, orders of Battle, and data. Reams of it. Glantz, I thoroughly believe, writes not for casual students of Eastern Front history, but for historians of The Great Patriotic War specifically.

The data and the associated details are of tremendous import to any historians of the era and locale but the delivery is much like a jackhammer, just pounding and pounding the reader with minutiae in a manner that is both hard to follow and difficult to digest. For me, I wish Glantz would approach the Eastern Front of WWII in a narrative style with appendices and annexes of supporting details. An example of the data and details provided:

The High Command (Stavka) reserve consisted of 6 armies, 14 rifle corps, 5 mechanized corps, 57 divisions (42 rifle, 10 tank, and 5 mechanized), and 17 artillery regiments (13 corps and 4 RGK) (see table 1.2)[1]


Writing style aside, Glantz does deliver a most comprehensive counter-argument to the theory that Stalin was planning to strike Germany first! Stumbling Colossus presents a picture of the Red Army in such a way, Glantz argues, that the Red Army in the spring of 1941, was not only incapable of starting a war with Germany, but ill prepared to defend herself from the German invasion.

I thought the section on ‘The Soviet Soldier,’ was outstanding. The details, citations, and newly accessed Russian archival material was refreshing and overdue as legions of historians have tended to focus on the main personalities like Zhukov, Rokossevsky, von Manstein, Bock, Guderian and others.

In summary, I find Stumbling Colossus an interesting departure for Glantz. The thesis was clearly presented and juxtaposed against Rezev’s thesis. As a start point for the book, Glantz delivers details, data sets, and citations in depth. So much so that on occasion I had to re-read and take notes. If only the data was presented in a narrative format with graphics. The scale and scope of the subject is daunting and Glantz adds to the burden. However, Stumbling Colossus achieves the authors main objective: it paints a picture of the Red Army in 1940-1941. A picture of a behemoth that was surprisingly ill prepared for the clash of arms that marked the start of ‘Operation Barbarossa’ and the largest battles of the Second World War. Further, Glantz paints a picture with new materials that presents an Army that was not only ravaged by previous conflict and purges, but of an Army that was unable to defend itself let alone conduct a preventative attack against Germany.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 








[1] Glantz, David M., Stumbling Colossus: The Red Army on the Eve of World War II, University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 1998



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