I have always loved history and have always been interested in the World Wars, so I was looking forward to reading this text more than some of the others that we have been assigned. When I started looking into it I assumed that there would be a good amount of information circulating somewhere on the topic, but that was not the case. I really couldn’t find anything apart from the odd review on Amazon or a few reviews on Goodreads. It was even hard to find information on the man who translated the text. Regardless, I found out that this book was made from two different Russian textbooks taught to children in their schools. Needless to say, as is the case with every country, their recounting of events is different than ours – especially considering the Eastern/Western difference in the U.S. and that time’s Soviet Union. It dragged on a great deal and did very much read like a textbook, so honestly I did just skip around, but I made sure to read the last section of the book which detailed the more controversial points in the whole affair, such as the Hitler-Stalin pact. One thing I found interesting about this text was how they made sure to point out not only what was different between their version and other versions, but why that may have been the case. One such reason for their treatment, they said, was most likely due to the Western habit to jump and attack anything Soviet, and by direct association, anything Communist.
Overall this was an interesting read and I would recommend it to anyone very interested in this particular subject. I hope to be able to read it in full at a time when I am less busy.