A sobering account of conflict on the Eastern Front of World War II told from the perspective of a Russian soldier.Honest and irrepressibly frank, these are the dramatic memoirs of a Russian officer on the Eastern Front, where he played his part in a clash of titans and witnessed the shuddering collapse of the Third Reich.The cataclysmic battle of Kursk in 1943 put an end to Hitler's hopes of victory on the Eastern Front, and it was Evgeni Bessonov's first battle. From then on the Germans were forced into a long, bitter retreat that ended in the ruins of Berlin in 1945. An officer in an elite guards unit of the Red Army, Bessonov rode tanks from Kursk, through a western Russia and Poland devastated by the Germans, and right into the heart of Nazi Germany.Tank Rider is the riveting memoir of Evgeni Bessonov telling of his years of service at the vanguard of the Red Army and daily encounters with the German foe. He brings large-scale battles to life, recounts the sniping and skirmishing that tried and tested soldiers on both sides, and narrates the overwhelming tragedy and horror of apocalyptic warfare on the Eastern Front.So much of the Soviet experience of World War II remains untold, but this memoir provides an important glimpse into some of the most decisive moments of this overlooked history.
Many of my comrades told me that I should write my memoirs but it is actually a difficult thing to do. After all, I’m not a professional writer – if the truth be known, I’m very far from that. But I can tell the story of my family, my childhood and my youth, and relate to you my experiences during the years of the Great Patriotic War.
Human memory is an amazing thing and life erodes away many experiences and events. With all the burdens and cares of daily life I had no time to indulge myself in my memories. I was not a government official or a politician, but a simple individual just like millions of others in our country. My memoirs will concern themselves with events that I saw take place or with those events which had an impact on me and those around me during the War. I do not claim to have a full and objective reflection of events – human memory isn’t perfect – but I will try my best. Similarly, I will try not to be too critical in my judgement of others. Things that are described in the memoirs are my personal point of view, my personal judgement and my perception of life. These memoirs are a look back at the life of a typical member of the Red Army, a career officer, who served 35 years of his life in the military – from 1941 to 1976. I entered service when I was 18 and retired at the age of 53 as a Colonel.
Of course, my memoirs will focus almost exclusively on the war years. There are fewer and fewer veterans left and those who are still alive are old. I myself turned 80 in 2003. The Great Patriotic War took a tremendous toll on the peoples of the Soviet Union but, regardless of how hard it was, the common people stood up to the test, despite heavy losses, and despite it being very hard both at the front and behind the lines. My aim is to show the War through the eyes of a participant in those events – not through the eyes of a Marshal or a writer, but of a platoon leader and company commander of tank riders, the motor rifle battalion of a mechanized brigade in the 4th Guards Tank Army. I fought for two years in the 4th Guards, from 1943 to 1945, and I covered around 3,800 kilometres with this unit. Such was my wartime voyage, and it was tough every step of the way. I participated in infantry assaults and rode into battle on tanks attacking the enemy positions. Intuition, experience of battle and knowledge of enemy tactics saved my life many times, but I think that I mostly survived by pure luck. Luck was vital at the front, and I can’t over-emphasize its importance for any soldier.
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