Regarding
800 Days on the Eastern Front: A Russian Soldier RemembersWorld War II Nikolai Litvin, ed Stuart Britton
Well, I finished it. I was an easy read, being only 143 pages. It was long on general history and short on specifics. The book gives a fair overview of what generally goes on the rear areas of a regimental HQ, but provides little on the daily life of the combat soldier. Litivn spent most of his time as a chaffeur (in the US, he would be called a driver) for a the Regimental commander. He really spoke little of the day to day activities of a front-line soldier.
He was a machine gunner in a penal battalion for a few weeks saw heavy action here, but spoke little of it in the book. He seemed to have strings to pull to get him out of dangerous spots, which he used several times. I don't blame him, he survived the war.
He spoke highly of US made trucks and jeeps and spent most of his time driving a Willys.
He talked about the murder of prisoners and of his participation in them. He did not like being involved and decried that type of action several times in the book. He said that while it was not officially sanctioned, it occured quite often.
One thing I learned from the book was how little motorization the infantry units had. In his regiment, there were 4 vehicles, all captured, except for the jeep. All artillery was horse-drawn, except early in the war when the crew themselves did the pulling. There were several instances of him stopping to help artillery crews who were man-handling their tubes.
As I read in earlier books on the WWII era Red Army, food procurement was a constant issue, although he did not go into great detail.
Litvin was very fond of his regimental commander, Col V. N. Dzhandzhgava, later general and the general was protective of Litvin.
After the war, Litvin was sentenced to 4 years hard labor in Siberia for possessing a pistol at the time of his discharge. He said it was a souvenir he was keeping for an officer friend (who could possess them) but they could not get together to get it to him.
The book is okay if have nothing else to read. If you want to read a good book on the average Red Army soldier, you will be better off to read
Tank Rider by Evgeni Bessonov. It is a much superior book.