Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front by Serhii Plokhy

Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front by Serhii Plokhy – An Untold Story of World War II – is a book that landed on my lap. While I was in Ukraine, a fellow volunteer went home, but asked the other volunteers who want to read it. I was the first to reply (just a few seconds faster than another volunteer who is an avid reader). When I left Ukraine, I gave the book to another volunteer who lives there and who is going to read it and lend it to others.
As one can imagine, I had no idea about the topic of the book, jumping at the chance of reading it because of the author – Serhii Plokhy. This is the 4th book I read by him. The volunteer who owns this book likes Serhii Plokhy very much too, as he has read a few of his books as well.

This books is about a part of history I didn’t know , hence I think the title is really appropriate. It’s about American bases in the soviet-controlled territory. US Air Force had planes in Poltava, Ukraine, in early 1944. The book covers the building and everyday running of the base and military equipment, of the interaction between soviet military, American men, Ukrainian women. It is really interesting to read. The book, while not very long, offers quite a lot of details.

I was surprised to see how weak the Americans were at times, in their interactions with the soviets, including Roosevelt and Churchill meeting at Yalta, where Stalin wanted. It was surprising to see the American positive views of the soviets when compared to the negative views of the English. Maybe that was a sign of propaganda, it was not widely talked about in the book, as it was not central to the history covered, but I found those small details fascinating.

The book was published in 2020, before the full-scale invasion and I feel that russian and soviet are sometimes used interchangeable, which is obviously strange considering that it was happening in Ukraine. Some of the details of the personnel might have been harder to find or not seem as important as these are seen now. This is the reason I gave the book 4.5 stars. I recommend it.

I will share 3 short quotes:

“The young Soviet technicians were also shocked to observe American soldiers talking to their officers as equals without standing at attention, often saluting informally and casually, wearing similar uniforms, and sharing the same food. The army of the bourgeois superpower was more egalitarian in relations between the ranks than that of the first “worker-peasant” state.”

“There was also a principle involved: in the Soviet system of values, airplanes and military equipment, especially those as rare and precious as the ones brought in by the Americans, were more valuable than human lives. Saving them at the risk of one’s life was standard operating procedure in the Red Army and its Air Force.” – this made me think of today’s russian propaganda, which emphasises how many lives the soviets lost in the war, which is a sign of not valuing life.

“At the Metropole the airmen were shocked to see Japanese diplomats in the restaurant—the Soviet Union was not at war with Japan.”

I don’t usually share extra pictures, but this is one of the places I read a chapter or two from the book, a lovely cafe in Lviv.

Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front by Serhii Plokhy

Details about the picture: photo was taken in Ukraine
My rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: Penguin
Year it was published: 2020
Format: Paperback
Genre(s): History – Ukrainian and soviet history
Pages: 340

About the author: Serhii Plokhy is a Ukrainian and American historian. Plokhy is currently the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, where he was also named Walter Channing Cabot Fellow in 2013. A leading authority on Eastern Europe, he has lived and taught in Ukraine, Canada, and the United States. He has published extensively in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. For three successive years (2002-2005) his books won first prize of the American Association for Ukrainian Studies.
Website & Social Media Links: –