The Russian Origins of the First World War

by Sean McMeekin

Overview

In a major reinterpretation, Sean McMeekin rejects the standard notion of the war’s beginning as either a Germano-Austrian pre-emptive strike or a miscalculation. The key to the outbreak of violence, he argues, lies in St. Petersburg. Russian statesmen unleashed the war through policy decisions based on imperial ambitions in the Near East.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674256316
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	05/06/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Sean McMeekin is Assistant Professor of History at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations ix

Author's Note xi

Introduction: History from the Deep Freeze 1

1 The Strategic Imperative in 1914 6

2 It Takes Two to Tango: The July Crisis 41

3 Russia's War: The Opening Round 76

4 Turkey's Turn 98

5 The Russians and Gallipoli 115

6 Russia and the Armenians 141

7 The Russians in Persia 175

8 Partitioning the Ottoman Empire 194

9 1917: The Tsarist Empire at Its Zenith 214

Conclusion: The October Revolution and Historical Amnesia 234

Notes 245

Bibliography 289

Acknowledgments 303

Index 307

Editorial Reviews

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

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

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

Going against a century of received wisdom, Bilkent University professor McMeekin offers a dramatic new interpretation of WWI...Rifling the archives, analyzing battle plans, and sifting through the machinations of high diplomacy, McMeekin reveals the grand ambitions of czarist Russia, which wanted control of the Black Sea straits to guarantee all-weather access to foreign markets. Maneuvering France and England into a war against Germany presented the best chance to acquire this longed-for prize. No empire had more to gain from the coming conflict, and none pushed harder to ensure its arrival. Once unleashed, however, the conflagration leapt out of control, and imperial Russia herself ranked among its countless victims.
-- Publishers Weekly

Casting a contrarian eye on the first major conflict of the twentieth century, Sean McMeekin finds the roots of WWI inside Russia, whose leaders deliberately sought--for their own ends--to expand a brawl that the Germans wanted to keep local. The author tracks the fallout of these antique plots right down to the present geopolitical landscape.
-- Barnes & Noble Review

An entirely new take on the origins of World War I comes as a surprise. If war guilt is to be assigned, this book argues, it should go not only (or even primarily) to Germany--the long-accepted culprit--but also to Russia...Bold reading between the lines of history.
-- Robert Legvold Foreign Affairs

As Sean McMeekin argues in this bold and brilliant revisionist study, Russia was as much to blame as Germany for the outbreak of the war. Using a wide range of archival sources, including long-neglected tsarist documents, he argues that the Russians had ambitions of their own (the dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires, no less) and that they were ready for a war once they had secured a favorable alliance with the British and the French.
-- Orlando Figes Sunday Times

The book is a refreshing challenge to longstanding assumptions and shifted perspectives are always good.
-- Miriam Cosic The Australian

From the Publisher

As Sean McMeekin argues in this bold and brilliant revisionist study, Russia was as much to blame as Germany for the outbreak of the war. Using a wide range of archival sources, including long-neglected tsarist documents, he argues that the Russians had ambitions of their own (the dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires, no less) and that they were ready for a war once they had secured a favorable alliance with the British and the French.

Sunday Times - Orlando Figes

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

This book should forever change the ways we have understood the role of Russia in the First World War.

Michael S. Neiberg

Casting a contrarian eye on the first major conflict of the twentieth century, Sean McMeekin finds the roots of WWI inside Russia, whose leaders deliberately sought—for their own ends—to expand a brawl that the Germans wanted to keep local. The author tracks the fallout of these antique plots right down to the present geopolitical landscape.

Barnes & Noble Review

The book is a refreshing challenge to longstanding assumptions and shifted perspectives are always good.

The Australian - Miriam Cosic

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

An entirely new take on the origins of World War I comes as a surprise. If war guilt is to be assigned, this book argues, it should go not only (or even primarily) to Germany—the long-accepted culprit—but also to Russia...Bold reading between the lines of history.

Foreign Affairs - Robert Legvold

The book is a refreshing challenge to longstanding assumptions and shifted perspectives are always good.
— Miriam Cosic

The Australian

As Sean McMeekin argues in this bold and brilliant revisionist study, Russia was as much to blame as Germany for the outbreak of the war. Using a wide range of archival sources, including long-neglected tsarist documents, he argues that the Russians had ambitions of their own (the dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires, no less) and that they were ready for a war once they had secured a favorable alliance with the British and the French.
— Orlando Figes

Sunday Times

An entirely new take on the origins of World War I comes as a surprise. If war guilt is to be assigned, this book argues, it should go not only (or even primarily) to Germany—the long-accepted culprit—but also to Russia...Bold reading between the lines of history.
— Robert Legvold

Foreign Affairs