In any case, it was very interesting reading. This narrative differs from others because the author seems always to be able to get decent food; there never seems to be a want for fuel in the German army, even at the end, little or no mention is made of the psychological impact of the bombing of the homefront is recorded and the impact of bombing and partisans on the railroads, while mentioned, seems infrequent and barely a nuisance. I compare this book to Guy Sajer's "The Forgotten Soldier" which is strong where this book is weak, and weak where this one is strong. In fact, the author's adventure parallels Sajer's in many ways and a couple of times I suspected this book was fake for just that reason, but where Sajer is expert at character development, he is very weak on the first person combat writing and getting the details correct where this author is able to include excellent combat writing with details such as how wooden shell cases were broken up to make floors for trenches, etc. The third and last part is all about how the main character reflects upon his choices and the things that have happened since he chose to go to Russia. All his past choices, present, and future is laid out on the table and he's pondering whether or not he's chosen the right thing. Günter Koschorrek wrote his illicit diary on any piece of scrap of paper he could lay his hands on, storing them with his mother on infrequent trips home on leave. The diary went missing, and it was not until he was reunited with his daughter in America some forty years later that it came to light and became Blood Red Snow.

A lot of things happen, wars still going on, both personal and around him. Choices and risks are taken.Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story, though I wish the pacing was a bit faster. I especially loved how it started out as a fairy tale story. I enjoyed all the characters, I loved how the stories came together in a subtle way, and the writing was mesmerizing and lyric. Arthur Ransome is a British author. Because he isn't happy with his wife he wants to get away from her as far as possible and decides to travel to Russia. He taught himself the language, so it seems like a natural choice to find out more about the country. This is his introduction to journalism. It's a time of unrest in Russia and the English newspapers need someone to report about it. Through his work Arthur makes important friends among the Bolsheviks and he even falls in love with Trotsky's secretary, Evgenia, which makes him an interesting source of information for numerous parties.

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight The second part of the story revolves around Arthur Ransome, the British journalist who wanders in Russia. We were introduced to him as a stranger in the first part, but he's actually a very important part and the main character of this novel, because most of the things that happen are through his accounts.This is a superb memoir of a typical German infantryman on the Russian Front. ... He give a vivid sense of the sheer horror and hopelessness which ensues when when infantry, devoid of cover and heavy weapons, are overrun by tanks. ... Told without any trace of enmity or political ideology, this is a simply a soldiers' story, of a man who does his duty and fights for the lives of his comrades. Pegasus Archive It may be that Koschorrek's diary was a truthful account of the man's experience at the time it was written. But by the time of publication the author, now an old man, seems to have added the parts about Soviet troops slaughtering their own people (while German troops were innocent as lambs) and having personally witnessed, coincidence of coincidences, the most well-known massacre committed by Soviet troops against German civilians, the one at Nemmersdorf, which was widely touted in Nazi propaganda at the time. (No, I don't say this means that Nemmersdorf didn't happen. I just don't think Koschorrek was there.) These falsehoods (to put it bluntly) devaluate what could otherwise have been one of the better German frontline soldier memoirs to come out of the Eastern Front - the kind of memoir that one of my uncles, Obergefreiter Ernst August Schmidt ( http://www.oocities.org/~orion47/WEHR...) might have written if he had survived. As two historians familiar with the subject matter informed me in response to my related inquiry, such massacres did in fact happen - but only in isolated cases and mainly in the areas that had been annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939/40, not on territory that had been part of the USSR before 1939. According to these historians there is no indication that such massacres - as Koschorrek claims - were falsely blamed on the Germen troops. Such wouldn't have been necessary anyway, after German units, including such of the Wehrmacht, had copiously provided for mass graves in the course of the extermination of the Jews (about 2 ½ million victims from the occupied Soviet territories), the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war (about 3 million out of 5.5 million Soviet prisoners of war did not survive captivity), the so-called fight against partisans (300,000 - 350,000 civilians killed in Belorussia alone, about half a million in total in all occupied Soviet territories) and also during the retreat (killing of prison inmates, brutally carried-out forced evacuations, in some cases also massacres of civilians like at Borissov and Ozarichi in Belorussia, and wherever possible the "scorched earth" destruction that left local civilians with little if anything to subsist on). a brutal and detailed account of the fighting in Stalingrad and the frozen retreat of the German Army.... this is a gripping story.' Beverley Guardian GenreBlast 2021: Hotel Poseidon, Apps And Something About Spiders?". ScreenAnarchy. August 13, 2021 . Retrieved January 24, 2023.

This was a great account of combat in Stalingrad and the Eastern Front. Koschorrek told his story as he lived it: an infantry private. I enjoyed the story because it was from the heart and almost gave a down-to-earth feel. My perception was Korschorrek didn't embellish and try to paint the picture of being a hero: he was just a normal scared recruit trying to survive. Callahan, Gwen. "The 2021 Awards Presentation Video with Kelly Maroney! – Portland Horror Film Festival" . Retrieved January 24, 2023.

In episode 6, shortly after Elma disemboweled Carl, Rinny attempted to shoot her, but Elma, having turned completely insane and thus having gained increased perception and agility, evaded and put up quite a fight, so much that Rinny decides to retreat. Meanwhile, outside of the cabin, Rinny 's mercenary helpers, Kim, Canny, Mr. X, and Puzz come to her rescue. But, after the magical, atmospheric opening where MS retells the fall of the Tsar and the rise of Lenin and Trotsky, the book loses its magic and becomes a dull tale about Arthur as a young journalist and writer. Russia, the Russian revolution, the rise of communism, fairy tales and metaphors... all of these things are interesting, but it just wasn't that interesting to read about a boring British journalist.