Russia

Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921

By: Antony Beevor

Narrated by: Rob Heaps

“Riveting . . . There is a wealth of new information here that adds considerable texture and nuance to his story and helps to set Russia apart from previous works.”—The Wall Street Journal

An epic new account of the conflict that reshaped Eastern Europe and set the stage for the rest of the twentieth century.

Between 1917 and 1921 a devastating struggle took place in Russia following the collapse of the Tsarist empire. The doomed White alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky’s Red Army and the single-minded Communist dictatorship under Lenin. In the savage civil war that followed, terror begat terror, which in turn led to ever greater cruelty with man’s inhumanity to man, woman and child. The struggle became a world war by proxy as Churchill deployed weaponry and troops from the British empire, while contingents from the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, and Czechoslovakia played rival parts.

Using the most up to date scholarship and archival research, Antony Beevor assembles the complete picture in a gripping narrative that conveys the conflict through the eyes of everyone from the worker on the streets of Petrograd to the cavalry officer on the battlefield and the doctor in an improvised hospital.

Sweeping

This reminds me of the current Civil War happening in Ukraine, between Slavic, Russians, and Slavic Ukrainians. Perhaps not as bloodthirsty, at least not yet. But just like in the Russian revolution, today’s Ukrainian war is full of different actors, all with different reasons, and all the Farias as to why they are participating in this Civil War.

The most in depth history of the russian Civil War

Fantastic book that truly captures the brutality of civil war in all of its aspects. it amazes me the lengths that Winston Churchill wanted to involve his exhausted country into a continuation of the European and Asian conflict. democracy was never in the cards for the russian people.

Lacks balance

I was looking for a better balance of information between the political and military campaign struggles. The first section of the book provided much better balance, but as the book went on, it turned almost entirely into a description of battles and battlefield atrocities, with very limited references to the simultaneously unfolding and twisting political situations. After effectively setting up Lenin's power plays and perspectives early on, I felt very disconnected from his situation, which was only reintroduced at the very end in summary of the book.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Russian civil war

An endless procession of savagery on both sides makes you wonder if it is a trait native to the Russian character. The horror begins with the ways the officers are killed in the beginning of the revolution and widens into outright extermination of everyone in the way. There is a relentless prodding through death and destruction on a timeline. The Jews got in the neck every time the Cossacks took an area. It begins to wear you down.

Amazing book.

Exposes the cruelty of humanity while giving you a complex and detailed lesson in history. A lesson that you will not get in any classroom. An amazing read,