Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945

Definitely worth reading if you are interested in WW2. Free of patriotic propaganda (the author is British), clever, sympathetic well-informed and also, as a story, breathtaking.

For those who have read so much about Nazi Germany, this is a must -- offering the another major perspective in the war that was first and foremost a clash between two major totalitarian superpowers of the era. Ivan's War can be read as a tribute to the fighting men and -women of the Soviet -- and also an apology for the atrocities they committed. Squeezed between the fighting machine of Wehrmacht and their own totalitarian regime with its draconian demands, it is amazing how many of these people managed to live, let alone keep their mental health.