One million women served in the Red Army on the Eastern Front in the Second World War, resisting the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union; genocidal, misogynist, warfare of unprecedented ferocity. Another 28,000 women fought with the partisans. Mass participation by women in warfare on such a scale is historically unique. This book explains why and how Soviet women came to fight en masse in Stalin's 'Great Patriotic War' of 1941-45. Drawing on a vast array of original archival, memoir, and published sources, it captures the confronting, everyday experiences voiced by Soviet women - aviators, anti-aircraft gunners, nurses, snipers and partisans - fighting, living and dying on the anti-fascist frontline. In doing so, it examines the aftermath of women's mass military participation and what it says about the place of women in Stalin's Soviet Union.