On the Eastern Front at Seventeen

On the Eastern Front at Seventeen written by Sergey Drobyazko and published

by Greenhill Books - £20 - Hardback - Pages 240

This is the true story of a young Red Army soldier during the Second World War,

told in his own words. Recruited into the army aged just seventeen, Sergei

Drobyazko’s introduction to battle is a violent one: forced to retreat from his home

city of Krasnodar after it is set ablaze by German forces. Later, Drobyazko is

captured by the Germans and placed in a concentration camp, where prisoners

are reduced to eating scavenged rubbish and bathing battle wounds in urine.

After a daring escape from the camp, he enters service once more, rising to the rank of sergeant in an infantry regiment. During this time, he witnesses the execution of deserters and the routine ill-treatment of German prisoners of war by vengeful Soviet troops. After surviving an attack that decimates his detachment, Drobyazko is almost court-martialled. Seriously wounded in 1944, he retrains as a radio operator, but he never returns to the war front.

In this gripping memoir, Drobyazko sets down his experience of the war as it unfolded around him. He claims to have consulted no historical sources and to have simply relied on his own memory, making this a deeply personal account. Translated into English for the first time, this unique account will be enjoyed by readers with an interest in military history.

These diaries/personal accounts from former Russian soldiers come up every so often and some are translated very well and still capture the imagination, and this is one of them. There does seem to be common threads that run through all of these books and that is how harsh the treatment and daily life is being a Russian soldier at most levels of command. It’s no wonder that so many of them try to desert or end up being captured because the training is almost negligent or non-existent. The equipment and conditions are usually very basic and there is certainly no respect or pride in the everyday soldiers, they’re almost treated like cannon fodder right from the start. Sergey was actually captured by the Germans, I’m not sure which situation would have been better really. I really enjoyed this book, one of the better personal accounts of Russian soldiers, well worth a read, and quite interesting.