Red Army: A Novel Of Tomorrow's War - Softcover

Ralph Peters

Softcover

ISBN 10: 035232533X ISBN 13: 9780352325334

Publisher: W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd., 1989

Synopsis

In the heart of a European forest, a young private dreams of home and rock 'n roll. At command headquarters, a four-star general pursues a family tradition of military honor that reaches back centuries. They could be any two soldiers in the world. It could be any army - but it's not. The place is the East German border. The time is tomorrow - and the Soviet Army is about to attack. . .

While western leaders debate the use of nuclear weapons, the Soviet Army and its Warsaw Pact Allies crash across West Germany, exploiting the NATO armies' deadly lack of preperation. In a matter of days, refugees clog the roads and the cities are in shambles. The Soviet Army wages a brutal battle for Europe - even as the hidden rivalries and divided loyalties within its ranks begon to emerge.

In this extraordinary. controversial novel, author Ralph Peters a U.S. Army intelligence officer specializing in the Soviet military - takes us inside an army of dozens of languages and ethnic backgrounds, into the belly of an armored personnel carrier, the cockpit of a MIG, and onto the bloody battlefield where sophisticated tanks duel like ancient, flame-spewing dragons.

From Chief of Staff Chibisov, fighting his ethnic heritage, to the daring tank commander Bezarin, locked in an unforgettable duel of wits with a British division, from bitter veterans of Afghanistan to raw recruits, a host of vivid characters are swept up in the chaos and drama. Some will be heroes. Some will die, and others will have their souls scarred forever.

As the HATO armies make their last, desparate stands - divided by Soviet maneuvers and their own political squabbling - Red Army thunders to a truly frightening climax.

Told entirely from a Russian point of view, Red Army is a riveting tour de force. More than a portrait of high-tech modern warfare, it is a fascingating novel of human strengths and weaknesses - a chilling look at the one army in the world that may have the power to defeat us.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Contemporary fiction with a war-fighting theme demands an obliging enemy who tests one's strengths and virtues to their limits, but ultimately makes the right decisions--and the right mistakes--to secure a favorable outcome for the "good guys." Western authors from Sir John Hackett to Tom Clancy have assigned that role to the Soviet Union. Peters, a Soviet analyst, Russian linguist and military intelligence officer, reverses the image in this brilliantly executed military procedural that tells the story of a future conventional war on the NATO central front entirely from a Soviet perspective. He eschews national policy, grand strategy, and high-tech gadgetry to focus on the mentalite of the modern Soviet soldier, from marshall to rifleman. Fusing knowledge of Soviet fighting techniques and Russian history, he presents credible military situations and characters who are archetypes rather than stereotypes. Readers will find here neither the military primitives described by Viktor Suvorov and Alexander Cockburn, nor the mirror-images based on U.S. models that dominate so much recent fiction. Peters's Red Army is by no means a perfect military instrument, but it knows how to fight. And it recognizes a fundamental truth: wars are won by the side making the fewest mistakes. In these pages, NATO becomes the obliging enemy whose errors of planning and execution contribute to a Soviet victory that is as well-deserved as it is hard-fought. Military Book Club main selection; Literary Guild and Doubl eday Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd.
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 035232533X
• ISBN 13: 9780352325334
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 382