Two gargantuan armies collide on battlefields west of Moscow in 1941. Calling the shots are two dictators. For the Nazis: Adolf Hitler. For the Soviets: Joseph Stalin. Both men ignore the advice of generals and insist on victory at any cost. Caught in the middle: an astonishing seven million soldiers. It is the largest battle in human history and perhaps the most consequential. By mid-October the Soviets are on the verge of collapse, but when "General Mud" and "General Cold" arrive a few weeks later, the Nazi advance is stopped dead in its tracks.

• Alex Ozerov-Meyer