“Every page evokes in vivid detail what it was like to be a woman at the heart of the male world of aerial combat in Stalin’s Russia . . . A feat of historical research and a wonderful, stirring read”
RACHEL POLONSKY, author of Molotov’s Magic Lantern
“Lyuba Vinogradova tells the poignant story of the determined young women who fought and died in the air above Stalingrad and elsewhere in the epic struggle to expel the German invaders . . . An absorbing and meticulously researched account”
RODRIC BRAITHWAITE, author of Moscow 1941: A City & Its People at War
“What has been missing until now is a properly researched account of these pilots’ wars . . . Defending the Motherland fills that void. It does so with a transparent affection for its characters but also a vital resistance to the propaganda that still clings to this subject . . . It is diligent scholarship and compelling biography”
GILES WHITTELL, The Times
“The story of the Soviet airwomen is well told by Lyuba Vinogradova . . . She has done a huge amount of research, which shines through the pen portraits of the aviators and some of the vivid descriptions of the aerial battles”
LEO MCKINSTRY, Literary Review
“[Vinogradova’s] assiduous research, including numerous interviews with elderly veterans, has uncovered fascinating nuggets about the young female pilots’ experiences”
DOMINIC SANDBROOK, Sunday Times