Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution

In Making Sense of War, Amir Weiner reconceptualizes the entire historical experience of the Soviet Union from a new perspective, that of World War II. Breaking with the conventional interpretation that views World War II as a post-revolutionary addendum, Weiner situates this event at the crux of the development of the Soviet—not just the Stalinist—system. Through a richly detailed look at Soviet society as a whole, and at one Ukrainian region in particular, the author shows how World War I...