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Marble Hill reissues Cox’s ‘remarkable’ account of the Winter War as part of new series
Marble Hill is reissuing Geoffrey Cox’s “remarkable” account of Stalin’s ill-judged 1939 invasion of Finland – also known as the Winter War – as part of a new series titled Writing About War.
World rights to reissue The Red Army Moves, first published by Victor Gollancz in 1941, was granted to managing director Francis Bennett by Cox’s daughter. He acquired world rights.
Described by the publisher as having “striking similarities with Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine”, all royalties will be given to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. The Red Army Moves will be published in paperback on 18th August 2022.
The publisher’s synopsis reads: “The Finns were expected to capitulate within days before the overwhelming forces of the Soviet army. Instead, the poorly equipped and badly led invaders met fierce resistance from well-organised, courageous, mobile Finnish troops determined to defend their homeland. The expected ‘easy victory in a few days’ became a bitter conflict of many months.
“The importance of The Red Army Moves is as great today as it was when it was first published more than 80 years ago. Cox’s dramatic account of the military, political and diplomatic aspects of the war and his powerful descriptions of Finnish sacrifice and the Soviet military weaknesses have an astonishing relevance to events we are witnessing now.”
Bennett told The Bookseller: “Over a number of years I have built up a small collection of books by Second World War correspondents. Re-reading them recently, I was struck by how vivid these accounts were, written by men and women who took enormous risks in their efforts to establish the truth of what was happening as it happened. Their accounts were written, of course, without any idea of how the conflict would end.
“Hearing these voices so many decades later made me realise how distant we have become from those first-hand accounts, and how they add a new dimension to our understanding of what war is like. Was I the only person who would respond to these books in this way? I was sure I wasn’t. That is how this series, Writing About War, was born.
“What astonished me [about The Red Army Moves] was the extraordinary parallels with what is happening now in Ukraine. The huge, poorly equipped, poorly led Soviet army is told that Finland will collapse in a couple of days and the troops will be welcomed as saviours. How wrong the Soviet leaders were. Without suitable clothes and equipment, thousands of young lives were lost as the invaders came up against a much smaller force, fired with determination to defend their homeland.
“Does history repeat itself? It would seem so. The Finns won the first ‘war’, but the Soviet generals, fully prepared to sacrifice ever more young lives, slowly overcame the Finns by sheer force of numbers. The cost for both sides in lost lives and materiel was enormous.
“This is a remarkable book about a little known war that is of great relevance to what is happening now. It deserves to be read again.”
