Soldier X

Most of Soldier X takes place on the Eastern Front, a theatre—or area—of World War II fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Many countries engaged in this front, including most of Central, Eastern, Northeast, and Southeast Europe, particularly Poland. It is the primary theatre of war for World War II, hosting most of the combat and 30 million of the 70+ million deaths attributable to the war. The conflict between Germany and the USSR began with Operation Barbarossa, when Nazi Germany and their allies invaded the Soviet Union by bombing cities in Poland, breaking the preexisting pacts between the two nations. Nazi Germany believed that Russia was necessary for their principle of Lebensraum—or living space for German people—and intended to exterminate the native Russians, eradicate communism, and utilize Russian resources for their own purposes. It is unknown whether Joseph Stalin intended to invade Germany before Operation Barbarossa in turn, but the question remains hotly debated in the interest of analyzing the Soviet Union’s role in the greater war.

Germany’s losses during the battles in Operation Barbarossa likely led to their ultimate loss of the entire world war. While Germany was more resourced for the war, the Russian army’s familiarity with the territory and tenacity is attributed to their victory despite the latter’s heavy losses. Hitler himself attempted to blame the war’s failure on winter and the cold climate of the Eastern Front, but most scholars now agree that the German failure can be attributed to their inflated confidence leading them into a brutal war of attrition that starved both sides. Thousands of civilians died in the conflict, and Germany is particularly noted for their atrocities against civilians and prisoners of war from the Soviet Union, which include mass murder, gang rape, no quarter, and forced labor. During the siege of Leningrad, conditions for Soviet citizens deteriorated so rapidly that some Russian citizens resorted to cannibalism to survive. Over 1,000 Soviet towns and thousands of villages were destroyed in the conflict due to Nazi Germany’s scorched-earth policy, which sought to leave no survivable ground or resources for the Soviet Union to use or benefit from.

Soldier X emphasizes the atrocities performed against the Russians by the Germans while also depicting the mutual brutality and violence of the Eastern Front. Many aspects of the book’s depiction of Russia and Germany aim to portray the experience of an everyday citizen in either country. The emphasis in the book’s second half on the Russian nurses and women is particularly relevant, as women were a key part of the Soviet Union’s efforts. Nurses like Jewish Maria “Masha” Bruskina, who was executed for helping Soviet soldiers as a Belarusian partisan, became martyrs and heroes, and beyond hospitals, many women served as snipers and pilots for the Soviet Union. While Soldier X criticizes both the Russian and German fronts for their atrocities, Tamara’s significant role within the book emphasizes the relative fluidity and importance of the Russian woman during the war.