Victor Nekrasov's masterpiece Front-Line Stalingrad is one of the classic novels to come out of the pitiless fighting on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. His gripping narrative is set against the background of the grim struggle of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany – among the battered, exhausted, outnumbered Red Army soldiers desperately defending Stalingrad.

Nekrasov himself experienced the front-line fighting – he served as a sapper in the trenches and dugouts of the ruined city. He drew on his personal recollections in this graphic but sombrely realistic account. His writing shows the heroism, comradeship and humour of the Red Army soldiers, but also the violence and anger of men whose nerves are frayed to breaking point.

His extraordinary novel, long out print, is reissued to mark the seventieth anniversary of the decisive Second World War battle.