Summary Of The Eastern Front By Norman Stone

The Eastern Front by Norman Stone examines one of the less talked about areas in World War history, World War I’s eastern front. He effectively tells the story of the events that lead to the Russian’s retreat during this time period. His countless hours of research toward this book takes us on a journey of Russian militarism. He credits the way the war shaped out to the wide variety of changes going on in Russia during this time. The increasing economic and social tension, as well as the war going on, in Russia just added more distractions in the minds of the Russian government. Stone shows us that Russia was not economically stable enough to handle a war, as they were dealing with the struggle between the old Russian society and the new. This

Feuds within the leadership and the lack of useful communication also led to the inability of the Russian army to succeed when it mattered the most. Where many historians credit the failures of the Russian army to is the Russian economy. Stone main point of this book was to discredit that common misconception. His relentless researched had led him to believe that Russia’s failure are accredited to unqualified leadership and unorthodox military organization. Stone’s The Eastern Front main point of this book is to point out common misconceptions about the eastern front. The first fallacy that Norman Stone is quick to shut down is that if Russia had received more supplies from their western allies then they would have triumphed in the eastern front. Stone explains how the supply shortages were just lies made up from the leaders of the Russian military to shed light away from their tactical

He covers all his ground of the major battles in Russia’s eastern front, while also giving the lowdown on the happenings inside the Russian government, military, and society. His myth busting strategy created an interesting twist to his style. There were some points that the average reader could find himself or herself lost. During the part where he was getting into the depths of the Russian military, I found myself losing track of what his original point was, mainly because I am not savvy when it comes to the topic of military structure. There are other times that I found myself losing some interest, especially in the parts where little fighting was going on. You can tell that Norman Stone has so much knowledge on this topic and that he does not miss any information, but I believe that sometimes less is more. He could have done with shortening some of his explanations as I thought that sometimes he complicated things way too much, but that is a personal problem. I do credit Stone for incorporating some maps and charts throughout the book. I think, especially when talking about war strategies, maps and charts are very useful to understanding the movements and statistics of the different parties. Overall, I do believe this book is very informative and does answer a lot of unanswered questions about the eastern front while also shedding light on new information about the