This groundbreaking history traces the Red Army's advances across central Europe and the Balkans in 1944–1945. It focuses on the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts that occupied Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Austria. Utilizing material from archives across Russia, Ukraine, and Serbia, alongside diaries, memoirs, and interviews, Vojin Majstorivicì examines the official policies and troops' behavior in each country and analyzes military violations, from deserting and looting to widespread sexual violence. His findings show that the Red Army was an ill-disciplined force, but that military personnel committed fewer crimes against civilians in 'neutral Bulgaria' and 'friendly' Yugoslavia than in 'enemy' Romania, Hungary, and Austria. To explain the variation in troops' conduct, he stresses the interaction of several continuously evolving factors: Kremlin's policies, the severity of the fighting, the command's policies toward criminals, the official propaganda, and troops' martial masculinity, identity, and views of the local populations.

‘This important book offers a fresh and much-needed perspective on the intertwined histories of sexual violence, war crimes, military law and discipline in the Red Army. With its ambitious geographic scope and rich source base—including largely untapped NKVD records—Violence and Occupation will be required reading for historians of the Second World War.’

Ruth Lawlor - co-editor of The Greater Second World War

‘Violence and Occupation: The Red Army in the Balkans and Central Europe, 1944-1945 is a tour de force, the foremost book on the Red Army's move into the Balkans in 1944-1945. Moreover, Majstorovic's comparative approach offers radical new insights into the sexual violence wrought by Soviet troops.’

Matthew Lenoe - author of The Kirov Murder and Soviet History

‘While the actions of the Red Army entering Nazi Germany are well-known, Majstorovic’s masterful account of rapacity, indiscipline, and violence in the Soviet march through Eastern Europe brilliantly fills a glaring gap in the scholarship. A deeply researched and sophisticated analysis of the devastating effects of occupation on Hitler’s erstwhile allies.’

Edward B. Westermann - author of Drunk on Genocide: Alcohol and Mass Murder in Nazi Germany