“Not a Step Back”: Pages from Marshal Budyonny’s Frontline Notebook, June – August 1942

This publication presents, for the first time, the wartime notebook kept by Marshal Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny during his command of the North Caucasian Front in the summer of 1942. The entries cover the period from 25 June to 2 August 1942, a time marked by intense defensive operations by Soviet forces in the Great Bend of the Don – an area that became the staging ground for subsequent battles in the North Caucasus and along the Lower Volga near Stalingrad. The document is accompanied by a scholarly introduction and detailed commentary. This edition provides new insights into situational assessments, as well as the processes of command decision-making and execution during the pivotal fighting on the Don Front in July 1942 – an episode that proved critical to the broader Soviet defensive campaign on the southern flank of the Eastern Front in the summer and autumn of that year.