The feat of the defenders of the “weapons capital of Russia”: on the publication of the monograph “The battle for Tula: «Stop Guderian!»” by S.Yu. Kondratenko

The article offers a critical analysis of a new monograph (2021) by Russian historian Sergey Yu. Kondratenko highlighting the history of the defense of Tula during the first year ofthe Great Patriotic War. The analysis is undertaken from the viewpoint of the current historiographical situation, with its heightened interest to the history of a human being during the war, to the previously obscure events of microhistory, referred to as “the new local war history”. Attention is paid to a comprehensive range of sources used in the monograph, documents found by S.Yu. Kondratenko in archival funds. The monograph is especially noted for its wide scope of issues ranging from general and purely military ones concerning the defense of Tula to the daily life of the defenders of the “weapons capital of Russia”. S. Yu. Kondratenko for the first time in Russian historiography views the Red Army defensive operation of Tula as part of the epic Battle of Moscow, vividly showing the significance of the successful defense of Tula as one of the most important factors of the victory of the Red Army in the Battle of Moscow. The monograph by S.Yu. Kondratenko in itself witnesses the most significant changes taking place in modern Russian historiography of the World War II.