The Russian Revolution: World War to Civil War 1917-1921

by Nik Cornish

Overview

Often the drama of the October Revolution and the Bolshevik seizure of power overshadow the disastrous Russian-German war that preceded it and the extended, confusing, many-sided civil war between the Reds and the Whites that followed. But Nik Cornish’s vivid photographic history gives equal coverage to each of these momentous events and shows how the Russian empire of the Romanovs was transformed into the Soviet dictatorship.

Contemporary photographs show the leading characters in the drama – Tsar Nicholas II, Kerensky, Lenin and Trotsky and other Bosheviks, and the White commanders Denikin, Kolchak, Wrangel and the rest. But they also record, in an unforgettable way, the ordinary people who were caught up in the surge of events – civilian crowds on the city streets, peasant groups in the villages, the faces of common soldiers on all sides who fought on multiple fronts across Russia from Poland, the Baltic states and the White Sea to the Black Sea and Siberia.

The scale of the conflict was remarkable, as was the intensity of the experience of those who took part and witnessed it, and this collection of historic photographs gives a poignant insight into the conditions of their time. It is a fascinating introduction to a period that saw a sea change in Russian history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848843752
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	07/19/2012
Series:	Images of War
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Nik Cornish is a former head teacher whose passionate interest in the world wars on the Eastern Front and in Russias military history in particular has led to a series of important books on the subject including Images of Kursk, Stalingrad: Victory on the Volga, Berlin: Victory in Europe, Partisan Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941-1944, The Russian Revolution: World War to Civil War 1917-1921, Hitler versus Stalin: The Eastern Front 1941-1942 Barbarossa to Moscow, Hitler versus Stalin: The Eastern Front 1942-1943 Stalingrad to Kharkov and Hitler versus Stalin: The Eastern Front 1943-1944 Kursk to Bagration.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements and Photographic Credits 7

Preface 9

Introduction 11

Chapter 1 Events in Petrograd are Ear from Calm 17

Chapter 2 A Time of Confusion and Hope 33

Chapter 3 The Opposition Emerges 47

Chapter 4 Confusion he their Epitaph 61

Chapter 5 Black, Red, Green and White - the Rainbow at War 75

Chapter 6 Adrift in a Counter-revolutionary Sea 89

Chapter 7 Zeniths and Nadirs - Target Moscow 103

Chapter 8 Crimean Sunset 117

Chapter 9 Bolsheviks Triumphant 131