The Commissar

Name: The Commissar
Rating: 4.03 (1305 reviews)

by Sven Hassel Book 14 in the Legion of the Damned series.

First published 1985

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4.0(1,305)

Sven and the 27th Penal Regiment learn that a Soviet commissar has concealed a large quantity of gold behind enemy lines. Porta proposes an illicit bargain: passage or assistance for the Russians in exchange for a share of the treasure. The scheme requires the comrades to cross front lines, deceive their own officers and negotiate with men whom official propaganda defines only as enemies.

The search for gold turns the Eastern Front into a black-market frontier where survival and personal gain compete with military orders. Hassel combines combat with farce as alliances shift and every participant expects betrayal. The novel’s Soviet commissar is fictional, but the political role evokes the system of party supervision within the Red Army; the regiment’s response remains characteristically anti-ideological, treating both German and Soviet authority as obstacles to staying alive.