Stalingrad By Antony Beevor Summary

Stalingrad, by Antony Beevor, is a book on the fatal battle of Stalingrad in World War 2. The author stated in the book, “The idea behind this book is to show, within the framework of a conventional historical narrative, the experience of troops on both sides1, using a wide range of new material, especially from archives in Russia.” The author’s sources for the book included war diaries, chaplains’ reports, personal accounts, letters, NKVD2 interrogations of German and other prisoners, personal diaries, and interviews with participants. The preface ends with the author thanking all who had helped him in his research for the making of this book.

On June 21st, 1941, the Soviet Embassy received an urgent signal from Moscow demanding “an important
On Saturday evening, the messages from Moscow became more frantic. The Soviet Embassy rang the Willhelmstrasse every thirty minutes. In Moscow, the Soviet Foreign Minister summoned the German ambassador to the Kremlin4. The German ambassador, after overseeing the destruction of documents in the German Embassy in Russia went to the meeting at the Kremlin. He was challenged with the evidence of military preparations at the border of Russia. He did not admit that an Russian invasion from German forces was about to take place and refused to answer any more questions until he consulted with officials from Berlin. Many reports came in to Stalin, who opposed the idea that Germany would invade, hinting that Germany would start the invasion within the coming hours. Stalin could not come to terms that the situation was becoming out of his control. That night, after long discussions with senior commanders of the Red Army5, Stalin agreed to dispatch a signal to all military-district headquarters in the West. The message read, “In the course of 22nd to the 23rd of June 1941, sudden attacks by the Germans on the fronts of Leningrad, Baltic Special, Western Special, Kiev Special, and Odessa Military Districts are possible. The task of our forces is not to yield to any provocations likely to prompt major complications. At the
The Bulgarian ambassador was summoned to the Kremlin. There he was asked if he would act as intermediary6 where he refused. On June 22nd, after the Russian government being silent, the people finally heard of what was happening, though not from Stalin. Molotov7 made a speech over the radio, “Today at four o’clock in the morning, German troops attacked our country without making any claims on the Soviet Union and without any declaration of war.” Molotov’s statement gave little detail on the situation, his choice of words was uninspired, and his delivery of this statement was awkward. Although the message was poor, it created a powerful reaction throughout the Soviet Union. Reservists8 did not wait for mobilization orders from Stalin, they reported at