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(More customer reviews)Given the ridiculous amount of historical over-kill spent on well-worn topics such as D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge, it's refreshing to see a serious researcher dig up a piece of history that has passed unnoticed before. In this case, Richard W. Harrison's Architect of Soviet Victory in World War II introduces Western readers to a man who - even though his contributions in military theory were significant - has remained an un-person for seventy years. Georgiy S. Isserson ((1898-1976) was a Soviet officer who taught at the Frunze Military Academy in Moscow and on the General Staff during the interwar period. Isserson wrote several highly important doctrinal books and was a key advocate for the new Soviet theory of Deep Operations. However, Isserson was purged by Stalin in June 1941 and spent a decade in the Gulag. Afterwards, his name vanished from history and he was ignored by Western historians who were too dependent on the "official" Soviet line. Harrison's book is part biography and part dissection of the development of Soviet Deep Operations theory; while it's a bit tedious at points, it reveals fresh information in every chapter. This book should help to change perceptions about Soviet pre-war military theory and how the Red Army evolved into a war-winning instrument.
The book is arranged sequentially, in twelve chapters. Isserson's early life and introduction to military service are described in standard bibliographical style in the first two chapters. However, the next three chapters divert from the details of Isserson's life and focus on his writing and how it contributed to Soviet Deep Battle/Deep Operations theory in 1932-36. As Harrison describes, Isserson built upon several existing theories by other Soviet officers, primarily Triandafillov and Tukhachevsky, but took their tentative Deep Operations concept into a much riskier but much more decisive Deep Operations construct. As the author notes, mechanization was a critical component of this new theory, but it also included air operations, mobile artillery and paratroopers. Ultimately, Isserson's concept of mechanized corps Deep Operations resulted in the tank armies of the Second World War that stamped the Wehrmacht flat. In one of the great ironies, Isserson missed the entire war because of his prison sentence but others who used his theories in battle were quick to claim credit.
Harrison's book is also extremely useful for the manner in which it demonstrates how the Red Army developed, tested and then implemented its new doctrines. Despite all the put-downs of the Red Army by German authors for decades, it is hard not to read this book and come away with the impression that the Red Army came up with both the tools and the doctrine in 1936 to succeed at mechanized warfare but Stalin threw it all away in the purges. In many respects, this book is something of a game-changer for a number of reasons. First, it shows a more nuanced picture of the Red Army than even David M. Glantz has been able to depict. Second, it helps to explain the doctrinal basis of Soviet victory in better terms than heretofore existed. Third, if a significant person like Isserson was hidden by Soviet censorship for so long, it suggests that there is still important information about the Russo-German War which has yet to be revealed. Overall, this book is significant but not for the general reader and better suited for those with a test for military theory and doctrine.
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The Red Army's leading operational theorist in the 1930s, Georgii Samoilovich Isserson was the mastermind behind the "deep operation"--the cornerstone of Soviet offensive operations in World War II. Drawing from an in-depth analysis of Isserson's numerous published and unpublished works, his arrest file in the former KGB archives, and interviews with his family, this book provides the first full-length biography of the man. The bulk of the narrative deals with the flowering of his intellectual talents from 1929 through 1941. Additional chapters deal with Isserson's arrest and his remaining 35 years, 14 of which were spent in labor camps and internal exile.
