Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 by Antony Beevor – a ‘grimly magnificent’ book
This is an ‘unceasingly agonising, yet always irresistible’ work
Antony Beevor’s new book, a history of the Russian Civil War, is “easily the most horrifying war story I’ve ever read”, said Gerard DeGroot in The Times. The four-year conflict, a period of “unrelenting terror”, caused as many as ten million deaths.
Beevor begins by “speeding through the familiar ground of the revolution”: the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in March 1917, the establishment of a provisional government soon afterwards, and its toppling in November, which marked the beginning of Bolshevik rule.
Next came what he calls a “kaleidoscope of chaos”, as the Bolsheviks fought to resist the counter-revolutionary White Russian forces. In a war of wild strategic swings – one railway station in Ukraine changed hands 28 times – both sides showed “boundless cruelty”, with “ordinary Russians” (and women especially) suffering the most. Finally, in 1921, the Bolsheviks prevailed – mainly because “White aspirations were incompatible with 20th century ideals”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Meticulously researched and superbly written, this is an “unceasingly agonising, yet always irresistible” work. Beevor has always been “keener on gory detail than analysis”, said Dominic Sandbrook in The Sunday Times – and much of the violence he describes here is “mind-bogglingly horrible”.
In Azerbaijan, women smeared themselves with excrement to avoid being raped by the Cossack soldiers fighting for the Whites – but “the soldiers simply wiped it off with rags and raped them anyway”. No less inhumane were the Bolshevik Cheka (secret police), who carried out the Red Terror – Lenin’s campaign against bourgeois “vermin”. When transporting prisoners by train, Chekists would randomly roast some alive in the locomotive’s furnace. One of their favourite torture techniques was to burn a prisoner’s hand, before slowly peeling off the skin in a perfect “glove”.
Although the Russian Civil war was “one of the most colossally damaging conflicts of the 20th century”, there haven’t been many general accounts of it, said Noel Malcolm in The Daily Telegraph. Beevor’s “grimly magnificent” book makes you see why – for this was a conflict that was “complex to the point of near-chaos”.
Military action was often indistinguishable from “foraging and plunder”, and the war sucked in many foreign powers (including Japan, China, America and Britain) and extended across a mammoth area (not only the whole of Russia, but also the “crescent of bordering states” to its west). It’s a story that’s hard to make sense of – but “Beevor tells it supremely well”.
W&N 576pp £30; The Week Bookshop £23.99 (incl. p&p)
The Week Bookshop
To order this title or any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Nigeria's worsening rate of maternal mortality
Under the radar Economic crisis is making hospitals unaffordable, with women increasingly not receiving the care they need
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Elevating Earth Day into a national holiday is not radical — it's practical'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
UAW scores historic win in South at VW plant
Speed Read Volkswagen workers in Tennessee have voted to join the United Auto Workers union
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
6 serene homes in Vermont
Features Featuring a four-level Shaker barn in Hartland and a Scandinavian-inspired home in Stowe
By The Week US Published
-
Amanda Montell's 6 favorite books that will expand your knowledge
Feature The linguist recommends works by Mary Roach, Alice Carrière, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Rowan Beaird recommends 6 compelling books from the 1950s
Feature The author recommends works by Patricia Highsmith, Shirley Jackson, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 spacious homes with great rec rooms
Feature Featuring a suspended fireplace in Arizona and a marine-themed home in Maine
By The Week Published
-
Recipe: gnocchi di spinaci (spinach gnocchi)
The Week Recommends Forget the potatoes for this gnocchi made of the 'classic combination' of spinach and ricotta
By The Week UK Published
-
Stephen Graham Jones' 6 scary books with deeper meanings
Feature The best-selling author recommends works by Stephen King, Sara Gran, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 stylish homes on the top floor
Feature Featuring a 1925 art deco high-rise in San Francisco and a factory-turned-home in Los Angeles
By The Week US Published
-
The Anxious Generation: US psychologist Jonathan Haidt's 'urgent and essential' new book
The Week Recommends Haidt calls out 'the Great Rewiring of Childhood' phenomenon
By The Week UK Published