The German soldiers had the policy of shooting and killing the citizens of Russia. The soldiers carried out one of the biggest genocide in the country. This has not gone without massive critics in from the many bodies, scholars, nations and soldiers. However, the picture which is painted by the Burtov in his work is that he tries to challenge the controversial belief that demonizes the work of the soldiers in Russia. In the chapter of his book, He gives briefs on the soldier's life on the front as one factor which made them very unique in this war. According to him, “The army suffered greatly there, facing an enormous loss of life and resources, coupled with an inhospitable environment and the Red Army’s continued resistance and material power”(Bartov, p.20). Further, he cites issues such the mental and physical aspects which made the soldiers different.
The main issues which Burtov cite in the first chapter of his book is that “Soldiers, had experienced the demonization of the eastern front and the destruction of their previously core “primary groups,” were very much involved in and dependent on Nazi ideology and propaganda to maintain their cohesion and provide the drive for the continuation of fighting.” this made totally different from other unique on their own. Burtov on the Eastern side shows that there was a massive contradiction between the German soldiers as the modern army and the Eastern front demonization. He claims that the situation was brought about due to that fact “throughout the front lack of fighting machines combined with the climatic and geographical peculiarities of Russia to deprive this former Blitzkrieg army of all semblance of modernity” (Burtov, 20). The later experienced that as an experienced soldier, “I didn’t know what trench warfare was like, but now I have learned” (Bartov, 25).
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He further elaborates that that apart from being unsuitable condition, the front was extremely harsh with many tanks and many other technologies which were supposed to be used al failed, and they had to be replaced primarily with the Russians horse wagons (Bartov, 20), "lost so many tanks and trucks that it declared itself ‘incapable of conducting mobile warfare" (Bartov, 20), this was the words of one of the soldier. His central claim at this point is that the lack of these essential issues leads to the harsh life of the soldier in this region. This he confirms made the soldiers unique from other.
He further gives us brief using the primary sources of the soldier's life on how the life was tough for these soldiers and they had to be unique from others to endure this experience. "The army suffered greatly there, facing an enormous loss of life and resources, coupled with an inhospitable environment and the Red Army's continued resistance and material power (Bartov, p.20)." In his word, he claims on page 22 that "the physical and mental condition of the soldiers and some of the commanders calls for issuing very detailed orders and carefully examining them, to avoid breakdowns" (Bartov, 22). They were in inferior clothing, inadequate food, and also facing dangerous kind of enemies. These kinds of experiences lead to trauma which painted the entire soldiers a different image "which not only was war hell; one also had to be a beast if one wished to survive it" (Bartov, 26). He further states that “new concept of heroism, a new self-perception of the combat soldier… There was an anarchic element in this celebration of death and return to savagery among the front-line troops” (Bartov, 26). This lead to its new form of action of killing and doing all kind of issues which has been used to demonize them.
