The Washington Post calls Sven Hassel "a brilliant storyteller," and his series of novels about life in Hitler's army have sold in the millions.

Sven Hassel, whose fact-based tales of Second World Warfare have sold millions, has created another horrific war novel, this time set on the deadly Russian front. The Commissar had the biggest secret of the Russian war: 30 million dollars of Soviet gold hidden behind Russian lines and Porta was determined to make sure his band of prison soldiers got their share. They were all prepared to slag through the ice and blood of the Soviet lines, fight like animals, and kill or be killed. The lure of this wealth, the promises of the Commissar, were enough to carry them into the bloodiest battles of the Russian war.