The Fall of Berlin is a book written by Antony Beevor, a British writer, fascinated by the great wars of the twentieth century. After a career officer, which will include access to information “protected”, he will devote his thirtieth year, in writing. Continuing a family tradition, held his mother and his grandmother, he begins his career as a novelist, and gradually turn away from fiction to publish historical works that will become his most famous works.

Two will be devoted to the war in Spain (The Spanish Civil War in 1982, The Battle of Spain in 2005-2006), five others will be devoted to different aspects of the Second World War, of course through the fall of Berlin (2002 ), but also Stalingrad (1998), liberated Paris (1994), and resistance in Crete (1991), among others.

Then of course, the title itself is quite clear about the content of the book. Describing the fall of the Third Reich, it focuses primarily on depicting the march of increasingly affluent, Russians, on the German occupied territories, then on Germany and its capital. The Western Allies, U.S. and British are finally little present, because very moderately interested in the capture of Berlin. Highlighting the strategic interests of divergent Slavic and Anglo-Saxon, the author proves himself throughout the book, its emphasis on the events of the East, who are primarily concerned with Soviet.
The secret of this best selling is certainly in the course of his very special author. Coming from a tradition of writing, a writer at heart, he is equally passionate about the military fact. This combination of sensitivity and method, is found in his book and explains the more his insistence on the progress of Russian victories at the expense of the West. His artistic sensibility was definitely more captivated by the formidable war machines of Nazi and Soviet propaganda by the enemies of brothers fighting the Russian and German, by the Allied landings, less romantic, and already studied. His methodical mind, to him when, inevitably compelled to put his lens on the events of Eastern European war since the fall of Berlin itself is primarily about the German and Russian armies. His mind strategist, passionate about the fact armed, pushed primarily to describe the forces, the military facts, than to describe the geopolitical situation. It is very interesting not having to make a political scientist, writer or just a historian, but an officer writer!
The Fall of Berlin is one of the best-selling author, is also his most controversial. Very popular in Western Europe and the USA, it has provoked the wrath of the Russian state. It is, indeed, the book focuses on the end of the war, just after Stalingrad, the Russians are beginning to rise and attack the Third Reich.

The Nazi regime appears as a decline in power for ever smaller, denounced in his ideology, but appears necessarily as less fearful because in a weak position more and more blatant.
The Anglo-American, which then landed in Normandy, is described as a modern army in its practices, which seek to reduce its losses and not “stand”. If it seems credible that the Western allies have sought to limit their losses in anticipation of a final showdown in Japan, the author obscures completely the behavior that may have been having some U.S. troops, including French soil (including rape).

Finally, and this has caused controversy, Antony Beevor describes without the taboo may have committed atrocities that the Russian army during the war. On numerous occasions, the book suggests (and thereby evoke more), numerous examples of rape and looting that Soviet troops have inflicted, including Polish and Prussian population. If the contrast between his description of the Anglo-Saxon and the Russian army is frankly suspicious, the accusation that the Russian state is against A. Beevor is rather unfair, or even completely politician (with a small p as would the other).
The book is dedicated primarily to fighting Russian-German, he insists necessarily about atrocities committed by the Soviets and the Nazis. Especially these two ideologies, contrary to the democratic ideology, are in themselves an acceptance, even encouragement of violence, implicit or explicit, that the writer was keen to decipher. In his work, he devotes many pages to describe Abberation and contradictions of the Stalinist system which, after great speeches, based on the worst human reflexes, cynicism, paranoïah imperialism. Such a denunciation of the Soviet system could only disturb a Russian state nostalgic Epinal beautiful images produced by the communist propaganda.

The Russians have always maintained the myth of a Red Army liberating and pure. The book is therefore equivalent to a denial of any official Russian history, celebrated with great pomp every year by a government that denounces fascism of his former enemies to conceal his own authoritarian tendencies. And be it British raises taboos about atrocities committed by Russian soldiers is even more unbearable for Slavic patriots.
Objectively, the author is much more pro-Western than anti-Russian. Indeed, he does not forget to specify on numerous occasions that the Russian officers, and Stalin himself, sought to limit the looting and rape. Not by humanism, but because they knew that too much trauma populations Polish and East German would prejudice a future occupation. A. Beevor does not reduce, as some have done, the Russian army to an army without weapons, which would have required technology and the American industrial power to operate.

Tough, but relatively accurate, the author was confronted with a controversy unjustified from a Russian state that is far from having finished his thesis. It will point the finger more otherworldliness which he demonstrated when the Western Allies, in his work of truth (not difficult for an Englishman) on the release “in Russian.

The book is a real keypad. Very precise (sometimes to the point ), he described almost every event of the Russians advanced on the Reich. The size of the guns until the mood of the troops, Antony Beevor painted before our eyes, the soul of armies but of peoples. For it looks as much about the plight of civilians on the soldiers, a very surprising choice in a piece as “military”. The refugees are not mentioned sporadically, no. They are part and parcel of the drama being played out. The war becomes all the more human it no longer concerns only the staffs or manufacturers mortars!
The book is also double its author. Very specific to the facts when military forces involved, this book certainly fascinate all enthusiasts of military strategy, but not only. Personally, the military-technical aspect completely disgusted me. At my first reading I had even given up reading the book that seemed too complicated with all these names garrisons, battalions, and explosive devices. But among the many technical terms and military lies a very interesting description of life at the time, dramas that played there. Behind the powder and the gun, lies the pen of a true artist, who captures the mood of the time and we transcribe. It is parvenur to enter without Manichaeism, the mood of each of the belligerents, each of the executioners of each victim. The narratives cold cotoient psychological analysis of people and states. And even if for me, the military remained under the Cyrillic, I learned a lot by reading this book about the war, but also on humans. In his capacity of injustice, Abberation, contradiction, indoctrination, and so on.

The Fall of Berlin will delight fans of military strategy, others will cling to any interest as it is more than that. Expect even when a thick book, not very easy to read, a little violence that is done, but nothing impossible. Since very few readers, I managed to read all is well and truly demonstrate that behind the pavement lies a book more accessible than it seems.