The catastrophe of the First World War, and the destruction, revolution, and enduring hostilities it wrought, make the issue of its origins a perennial puzzle. Since World War II, Germany has been viewed as the primary culprit. Now, in a major reinterpretation of the conflict, Sean McMeekin rejects the standard notions of the war’s beginning as either a Germano-Austrian preemptive strike or a “tragedy of miscalculation.” Instead, he proposes that the key to the outbreak of violence lies in St. Petersburg.
It was Russian statesmen who unleashed the war through conscious policy decisions based on imperial ambitions in the Near East. Unlike their civilian counterparts in Berlin, who would have preferred to localize the Austro-Serbian conflict, Russian leaders desired a more general war so long as British participation was assured. The war of 1914 was launched at a propitious moment for harnessing the might of Britain and France to neutralize the German threat to Russia’s goal: partitioning the Ottoman Empire to ensure control of the Straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.
Nearly a century has passed since the guns fell silent on the western front. But in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire, World War I smolders still. Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Jews, and other regional antagonists continue fighting over the last scraps of the Ottoman inheritance. As we seek to make sense of these conflicts, McMeekin’s powerful exposé of Russia’s aims in the First World War will illuminate our understanding of the twentieth century.
Sean McMeekin is Assistant Professor of International Relations at Bilkent University in Turkey.
Table of Contents
Contents Abbreviations Author’s Note Introduction: History from the Deep Freeze 1. The Strategic Imperative in 1914 2. It Takes Two to Tango: The July Crisis 3. Russia’s War: The Opening Round 4. Turkey’s Turn 5. The Russians and Gallipoli 6. Russia and the Armenians 7. The Russians in Persia 8. Partitioning the Ottoman Empire 9. 1917: The Tsarist Empire at Its Zenith Conclusion: The October Revolution and Historical Amnesia Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index
What People are Saying About This
Michael S. Neiberg
This book should forever change the ways we have understood the role of Russia in the First World War. — Michael S. Neiberg, author of Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I
Mustafa Aksakal
A bold reinterpretation of the Russian Empire's entry into the First World War. McMeekin argues that Russia believed a European war to be in its interest, that it sought to humiliate Vienna, and that it hoped to conquer Constantinople and the Ottoman Straits. — Mustafa Aksakal, author of The Ottoman Road to War in 1914
Michael Reynolds
The Russian Origins of the First World War is a polemic in the best sense. Written in a lively and engaging style, it should provoke a much-needed debate on Russia's role in the Great War. — Michael Reynolds, author of Shattering Empires: The Clash and Collapse of the Ottoman and Russian Empires, 1908-1918
