5128. The Fall of Berlin, by Marshal Vasili I. Chuikov, former Supreme Commander Soviet Land Forces, translated from the Russian by Ruth Kisch (read 4 Mar 2014) This book was published in Russian in 1965 and tells of the war as seen by the author, who was a Russian general leading a Russian Army. The book covers the time from January 1945 till the fall of Berlin on 2 May 1945. He never says anything bad about a Russian soldier and often praises individuals by name, He claims that Berlin could have been taken in February if the higher up Russians had done what he thinks they should have done. The contacts between Germans and him in the last days of the fighting are of interest, and it is fun to read of the Nazis' desperation. (No hint of any misbehavior by Russian soldiers is made--but the book ends on May 2, 1945, and I presume most of the evil by Russian troops occurred after that date.) The praise for the political officers in the Russian Army I presume was to attest to the author's loyalty to Communism. He died in 1982 and so never saw the fall of the Soviet Union. ( )