Claws of the Bear: The History of the Red Army from the Revolution to the Present

Skillfully blending political and social history, Moynahan's gripping, exceptionally vivid account of the Soviet army will be read with fascination even by those who would normally shun books of military history. The backward ``Russian streamroller'' that marched off to the guns of August 1914 lost millions of men. In Stalin's incredibly self-wounding purge of 1937-1938, tens of thousands of non-rebellious Soviet officers were murdered. Hitler's onslaught took the lives of countless more. Yet, somehow, the Red Army survived and evolved into an enormous, efficient killing machine. European editor of the London Sunday Times , Moynahan offers savvy chapters on the Red Bear's sweep into Eastern Europe, the army's defeat in Afghanistan, training of soldiers, the role of the KGB and the military in technical espionage. Soviet research into particle-beam and laser weaponry is proceeding apace, according to the author. Photos. ( July )