Book 3 57 Hours by Vesselin** Medkob and Paul Wilson

Anyone at all interested in a clear overview over the Chechnya civil war should read this book.   It contains a clear and well written explanation.   Interesting too, for Westerners, is the fact that the terrorist and their arms and explosives could proceed across Russia undetected and that certain people seemed to have free access to the theatre while the drama was unfolding. 

The main story is the story of a Bulgarian-Canadian man,  of the 57 hours in a Moscow theatre being held captive by Chechnya rebels, and how he survived.

The Russians released an unknown gas into the theatre before storming it.   Among the dead were all the terrorists and 129 innocent people, who succumbed to the gas after the attack.   The Russians had no plan for how to transport 600 unconscious and dying people to hospitals, no medical personnel standing by on site, and never told the doctors what it was, so they were forced to experiment with antidotes before being able to treat the dying people.  

Book 72 Defiance*** by Nechama Tec

This is the story of the Bielski brothers, Jewish partisans, who rescued over 1,000 Jews who survived WWII in Belorussia by hiding in the forests.   The book describes in detail how the group survived physically and the heirarchy and social organization that developed in order to survive.  

Tec interviewed many survivors including Tuvia Bielski, the charasmatic leader of the group, but the book is not an oral history, although there are some direct quotes.  This book is well researched and well written, other than the lack of stories in the survivors own words.  

The book is fascinating from two aspects --- the sociological/psychological, which is thoroughly analyzed, and the historical, which describes a little known aspect of the war.   Using many specific anecdotes, Tec describes how women were regarded in the forest camps, and especially how many relationships between upper class women and peasant men came about.