A masterful sum

Impressive amount (90 pages of notes and 60 pages of bibliography!) On a titanic conflict, the largest by enrollment, the territory and issues in the history of mankind, this book is immediately up among the "must-have" for any of the Second World War history library.
Difficult to summarize all the impressions that emerge from a complete reading as Mr Bernard puts into context the events: diplomatic context, strategic surprise, total or absolute war, questionable triumph of operational art (whose victory remains to be seen as the "art" has a fluctuating meaning prescribed periods of memory and historiographical wars with very contemporary issues ...
Kutuzov to Putin, it is a rewriting of the Russian-Soviet history and its confrontation with the Nazi totalitarianism that this book does.
Military operations are reviewed and placed in context above and their issues, but mainly by its global nature, this conflict is discussed economics, logistics, help the Allies, media, arts, daily life at the front, and crimes atrocities, human and political consequences, nothing is left out.
Beyond the pleasure of reading in French high level work on the Second World War, I especially appreciated the developments of the author on the Soviet operational art and its limits. Obviously some will cringe while reading this military theory was faced with the limitations and social and economic shortcomings of the USSR (thesis already supported by Sapir), and finally summarized in operations 5 or 6 against one leading to bloodshed.
also point readers welcome the use of Russian sources (not just those led GLANTZ), a renewed vision of the real role of Hitler and Stalin, and a rethinking of so-called "comparison" between communism and Nazism particularly timely.
Only regret, but without impact on the quality of the book too few cards (we would have preferred that the photo book be removed in favor of more cards), and military operations brushed on the essentials but not necessarily in the details .
I hope now equivalent work on the Western Front, on the Mediterranean and the Pacific.