A Thousand Sisters audiobook

Not many people are familiar with the brave Night Witches, a group of pilots who flew countless bombing missions during WWII. This is most likely due to these reasons - they were all women, Russian and they were told not to discuss what they did during the war and the pivotal role they played. Stalin needed pilots and agreed to a risky plan to train a select group of young women who would fly into enemy Germany and run nightly bombing missions. The work was difficult, required great aviation skill as many times they could add fog to the already dangerous night flying and was extremely dangerous. Stalin was also clear on something else - you could not be captured nor could you retreat or your family would suffer the consequences. As with all of Elizabeth Wein's books you are completely immersed into what these almost unheard of inexperienced women went through. In a world filled with and run by men, the 588th Night Bomber Regiment outperformed their male counterparts without complaint. This makes a great companion book to Kate Quinn's THE HUNTRESS coming out in February. My thanks to the publisher for the advance read.

La historia de un grupo de mujeres que todos debieran conocer, contada con respecto y sinceridad. Estupendo y motivador. Un 5⭐️ de lujo. Quiero tenerlo en papel de n mi biblioteca

I feel like I should preface this with the fact that I am not a historian, and have only a cursory knowledge of historical research processes and problems. With that said, I found this to be a pleasantly accessible collation of information about the Night Witches and the USSR's other female pilots; Wein is up front about the limitations of her resources, and about the way the chaos of war makes it hard to track individuals. She is not telling a single story, but weaving dozens or hundreds of them together to paint a picture, and I think she did so ably.This book is targeted at readers in their early teens, and I find myself wondering how they'll react to the incredible youth of Raskova's Regiments. As an adult, it was shocking to realize that many of these women were combatants, then war heroes, and then dead before they reached my age. Wein quotes one of them, 20-year-old Lilya Litvak, describing herself as "completely grown up" in her diary... and she wasn't entirely wrong, because she didn't get much older. There is incredible tragedy here, which is not exactly a shock given the greater tragedy of World War II, but I find every time I read an account which really delves into it, I'm struck by the scale and the horror all over again.And for Raskova's Regiments, there is plenty of horror on the home front too. I think this is the trickiest tightrope Wein had to walk: how to portray the incredible and heroic actions of these Soviet airwomen, without downplaying the violence of Stalin's USSR as a whole? She was, in my opinion, successful: stories like those of Sonya Ozerkova, stranded behind enemy lines and then, after an heroic return, nearly executed under the "Not One Step Back" policy, highlight the contradiction between the loyalty these soldiers felt to their motherland, and the way that motherland's government repaid them. There is something incredible about people willing to fight for love of a nation that treats them like this, and it occurs throughout history. No matter how you feel about war or the modern military-industrial complex, I think you have to admire anyone who is willing to give their lives for the concept and people of a country, even when the government of that country treats them abominably.Wein also was extremely careful in her discussions of the young airwomen's relationships and gender expression. She makes no assumptions, either of heterosexuality or queerness, but simply chronicles the different attitudes they had towards femininity in war time, and the relationships they formed, and acknowledges the places where we will simply never know all the answers. Were some of Raskova's Regiment gender-nonconforming or attracted to other women? Statistically, it's likely, but we can't be sure. Still, even her acknowledgement of the possibility was appreciated.Raskova's Regiments are, to this day, probably less recognized than they deserve to be, especially in non-Russian-language scholarship and media. I definitely appreciate the view Wein has provided into their lives and actions, and I hope that this book inspires young people to explore history and write the next best book on these incredible women.

Thanks Les for recommending this for me! I had a little trouble getting into it but then I was hooked. Those women were amazing.

5/5 stars Recommended for people who like: WWII, history, women's stories, perseverance, aviation history, Soviet history, feminism, other books by Elizabeth Wein, narrative nonfictionI got this book as an ARC from a contest, I was not required or asked to write a review.I already knew a bit about the Night Witches due to my interest in WWII and flying, however, it's still relatively difficult to learn about them. This is, in part, due to the fact that after WWII the USSR had a pretty tight grip on what got out of its borders, the second part is explained by Wein in the book--the women were told not to discuss their roles in the war. I was quite pleased when I discovered this book was coming out, by one of my favorite authors no less! It did not disappoint.The book starts by discussing Marina Raskova and her rise into 1) becoming a pilot, and 2) becoming the founder of the Night Witches. It's interesting to read about Marina growing up in a Russia that was unsettled by the politics of the time, yet still managing to persevere and become a female pilot in what was still, even in the 'gender equal' Russia/USSR, a man's world. From what Wein writes about her, Marina seemed to not only have been influential for female pilots and the aviation industry of Russia, but was also influential in politics.After the bit about Marina and how the politics and society of Russia changed to allow so many young women into aviation, Wein got deep into the sections of the 588th Bomber Regiment, the 46th Bomber Regiment, and the 586th Fighter Regiment. Despite the 'equality' of the USSR in giving girls the chance to fly, the women in the regiments still had to fight to join the air force. Of course, all of the girls who signed up wanted to fly, practically speaking, it wasn't possible to assign all of them to be pilots. Some became pilots, others became navigators, and some never reached the air at all, performing ground-crew tasks such as loading bombs, repairing the planes, and refueling.Despite any disappointments in assignment, the women in the regiments were all very connected and, describing themselves as sisters and family. If there was a loss--of which there were many--it was felt by all in the regiment. I really liked how Wein made sure to include this in the story. It would've been very easy to simply tell the story of the women and only focus on the war side of the story, instead, she manages to weave in the emotional side between descriptions of bombings, training exercises, and losses. These women were afraid together, afraid for each other, they loved each other, and it comes through not just in the moments when Wein points it out, but also in the moments directed elsewhere. She is also good at pointing out that the relationships of the women with one another were heavily influenced by the USSR's--and the time's--views on heterosexuality, and that it is entirely possible some of the women loved each other romantically and not just platonically, but couldn't be open about it due to the beliefs about homosexual relationships in Russia both during WWII and now. A Thousand Sisters was well-researched and well-written. The story has a good balance between the war side of the story and the emotional one. It was also nice to see the 'inserts' that discussed things mentioned in the book, or how things were going for women in aviation abroad. I was very happy with how the book read and the amount of information I got about the Night Witches that was previously unknown--or at least unknown to me.

"War is war, and life is life."A Thousand Sisters follows the creation and the adventures and exploits of the three Soviet regiments of female pilots created by famed pilot Marina Raskova in 1941, shortly after the start of World War II. Russia was the only country to allow women to fly in combat and it took no small amount of convincing and political clout on the part of Raskova to convince Stalin to try out the idea. Thanks to the military training undertaken by many of the young Soviet women who grew up expecting to need to defend their country against a "future war," there was no shortage of recruits who desperately wanted to help on the front lines. Almost a thousand of them would join Raskova at the training grounds in Engels, where they would be split into three regiments: the 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, the 587th Bomber Regiment and the 588th Night Bomber Aviation Regiment (the last of whom would become better known as the "Night Witches"). Throughout the next four years of the war, these women would fly hundreds of combat missions, fighting and dying to protect their Motherland from German invasion and eventually pushing back into Germany itself. A Thousand Sisters is the story not only of the regiments but of many of the combatants themselves, with stories taken from personal accounts as well as histories. As a history geek, I absolutely loved this book. As a librarian, I want very much to recommend it but also can recognize that it isn't going to be for everyone. A Thousand Sisters is aimed at teens, particularly girls, with stories of women who made a name for themselves in a time in which many were not allowed to participate. It's full of heroism and tragedy and friendship but it's also a ton of information and names packed into an amazing history. Wein tells personal stories to help not only empathize with the women but to remember the difference between Galya Dokutovich and Galya Dzhunkovskaya. I do think the book would have benefited from some sort of index of names as reminders because while I don't usually struggle to remember character names, I had some trouble remembering who was who sometimes while I was reading. Overall, A Thousand Sisters is a fantastic history that needed to be brought to light and makes for fascinating reading. It never feels dry or boring, but the sheer amount of information can sometimes feel overwhelming. I'd certainly recommend it to any history geek interested in the time period and in the Russian experience of World War II.

Yet another view of WWII from the Russian side. Book is a true story of women fighter pilots. Russia is the only country that had women in combat fight and they got paid equal to men. It was sad to read that after WWII, the women were basically sent back to civilian life. The book said that there are fewer women pilots now in Russia that what there was during WWII. Very interesting read.

Had no idea about what they accomplished until I discovered this book.

Loved the personal stories interwoven with the overall stories of the three regiments, both put in context with the rest of the war and what other countries thought about the use of women in war. A wonderful overview!

Elizabeth Wein never disappoints.

This is more of a non fiction book of the famous women that made up the Night Witches Regiment of the Soviet Union, one of three regiments of women you still don't hear much about on the history channel or in history books but made such a big difference in the war they fought and died in. Most of the Night Witches were just teens trying to help their country. Elizabeth Wein is a master at telling the story of those whose story might have been lost to time and death, and this is no different, the story of the Night Witches is one that needs to be shouted out and not forgotten, that those women were heroes for their country and should be remembered as such and for what women can do. It was a sisterhood, a bond, that can't be broken.This is a wonderful book of heroism and a unbreakable bond. It shows what heart really is during a trying and awful time. Elizabeth Wein has another great book on her hands and we hope she never stops writing about these wonder women from both sides.

Listened to audiobook. If someone wanted to find something problematic here, it would be easy. For starters, the successful formation of the regiments certainly appears to owe something to Raskova's closeness to Stalin. Though Wein describes the horrors of Stalinism, the fact is that the heroes of this book are those who could find favor and succeed in this regime. On gender, I can imagine people from both sides taking issue with Wein's treatment. For example, I wonder if some might be disappointed in how much space Wein devotes to the importance of traditional femininity to these women whereas others may find the book too apologetic or indignant that people of the era weren't good 21st-century progressives. I myself am often uncomfortable when books like this glamorize combat, and there's certainly some of that here. So all this is true, but I also think Wein could hardly have done better, and she is a fabulous writer, and she clearly loves the subject.

A superbly structured narrative of the prehistory, formation, and legacy of the three female aviation regiments fighting for the USSR in World War II. Elizabeth Wein has done a fantastic job of pulling service records, personal stories, interviews, and compiled sources together into a cohesive story. Where many nonfiction books of a similar nature become bogged down in trudging through hundreds of similar accounts, this reads as a collection of individual stories woven seamlessly into the backdrop of the war at large.For example, each chapter (generally 6-10 pages) highlights a unique challenge, representative tale, or interesting experience of the various regiments as the war progresses. One such difficulty was supplying the female regiments with suitable military attire. As with almost everything in the USSR, goods were scarce, and accommodations were rarely made - even for an all-female regiment. This meant receiving exceptionally large men's boots. A hilarious-yet-mundane detail the author chose to highlight this is that, while drilling, the women were told to turn and face the instructor; however, one woman's feet were so petite that her boots stayed in place even as she turned around.Other details which are especially impactful are stories of how the female pilots cope with the war, the death of their comrades, and the discrimination (or more often, underestimation) leveled toward them. Something I wish the author had made a point of highlighting is the fact that the women tended toward more emotional and even constructive methods of dealing with grief as compared to men - by singing meaningful songs, constructing memorials, and even decorating their planes or bombs with threats. Even when worked to the bone, they sang and danced as they found time to do so.And this personal, visceral format is the strength of this book. It never drags because of the numerous quotes and fascinating stories lacing everything together. While it isn't so fantastical that it literally feels like you're taking a journey with these incredible women, it flirts the line between narrative and raw history so well that it feels far more akin to a story than a textbook.The one complaint I have is that, while the author is clearly going for a more high-school level audience, she uses far too many trite metaphors regarding "winds of change". it seems that almost every chapter ends with an aviation metaphor, which often feels quite hollow against the inspirational tales, difficult tasks, and awful tragedies within. I feel these should have been cut out and replaced with more meaningful content.Overall, probably the most reader-friendly book on the wonderful, wild, and endlessly inspiring female fighter regiments of World War II! Even if you only have a general interest in female military history, get this book. It's a fast read and well worth the time.(Cue Night Witches by Sabaton.)