In most books I have read written by Alexander Werth – the publishers appear to have been very careful in editing-out any controversial attitudes or opinions Werth might have possessed. This is because the type of racist, misogynistic and discriminative attitudes which were prevalent throughout the 1940s UK (even amongst the political left) when Werth wrote many of his most historically important books – were NOT considered ‘acceptable’ in the 1960s – when Werth’s books were still being published and serving as an important counter-balance to the US anti-intellectualism that fuelled the Cold War.
Alexander Werth: Lamaist Buddhism in 1942 USSR! (25.9.2023)
Werth’s ‘The Year of Stalingrad’ conveys the sheer terror and horror of battle that unfolded in Stalingrad along a ten-mile wide front. The Nazi Germans (and their ‘Catholic’ allies) often launched upwards of ’40’ full-force attacks a day all along the Soviet front-line – combining SS, Infantry, tanks and aeroplanes! This caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Soviet Red Army soldiers and the disintegration of numerous Red Army formations! It was only when the notoriously ‘tough’ ‘Siberian’ Division into Stalingrad was placed into theatre that the Nazi Germans were finally checked – and eventually turned-back! This Soviet victory in 1942 gave hope to the world!
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 