《伊万的战争》是第一本将普通俄国士兵的经历置于苏德战争东线战场叙事中心的书，书中流露出的对战争的反思拥有重要的意义。书中所谓的伊万并不是一个具体的人，而是俄国步兵的抽象代表，但他以一个人的形象在书中呈现，讲述了苏军士兵在二战诸多惨烈而残酷的战事中的亲身经历，不仅拨开了苏联战时宣传的扭曲本质，也将尊严还归于红军中最普通士兵本身。 对那数百万于危难时刻奔赴战场的红军士兵来说，作为胜利果实受益者的我们几乎无从得知他们来自哪里，更不用说他们信仰什么又为何而战；我们也无从得知，在这样一场战争中除了经历生死，还有什么别的什么考验，经历一场这样的战争是如何改变了他们的生活，这种非人的暴力是如何塑造了他们对于生与死的感悟；我们无从得知当士兵们聚在一起时会谈论什么，分享怎样的经验、玩笑与民间智慧；我们也无从得知，他们心中是否有一方隔绝炮火的庇护所，他们所思所梦的是怎样的家园，又以一种怎样的方式爱着为他们所爱的人？ 在这部有野心的、启示性的作品，凯瑟琳？梅里戴尔基于对苏联及德国有关档案的研究，特别是对数百位二战老兵的采访，讲述了这“特殊的一代人”的特殊经历，向我们揭露了这群平凡士兵在残酷战争中的生与死。
Catherine Merridale has a First Class degree in history from King's College, Cambridge and a PhD from the University of Birmingham.
Retiring from her academic career, Merridale became a freelance writer in 2014. She has written for the London Review of Books, the New Statesman, The Independent, The Guardian, and the Literary Review. She has also contributed to BBC Radio.The author has spoken out publicly about the issues of publishing books in the field of history. There is much more pressure to publish shorter articles than full-length books, a "great shame" according to Merridale, author of multiple history books.
In an interview with The Independent, Merridale recalls how she became interested in Russia and its past. She began studying Russian in school and first visited the country at the age of 18. She said of her first impression of Russia, "Going from the then ghastly Soviet airport, everything in Moscow was grey and cold and hard. Suddenly in the middle of the city were these golden cupolas and enormous redbrick walls with peculiar swallowtail battlement pattern that didn’t look Russian, but did at the same time."
When she began work on her higher degrees, Merridale spent a year living in Moscow and observing the changes occurring during that time.
In another interview with Waterstones.com, Merridale summarizes her perspective of Russian history, "my message is that we have to take each generation of Russian leaders as they are and not keep assuming that Russia is fated to follow a special path and will always be the same. That there is a Russian destiny."
