Alexander V. Pyl'cyn

• Extremely rare (possibly the only) book-length account of a Soviet penal unit in World War II • Gritty, intense style conveys the brutality of war on the Eastern Front Composed of convicts--soldiers who conducted "unauthorized retreats," former Soviet POWs deemed untrustworthy, and Gulag prisoners--the Red Army's penal units received the most difficult, dangerous assignments, such as breaking through the enemy's defenses. So punishing was life...