Rosja. Rewolucja i wojna domowa 1917-1921

by Antony Beevor, Wojciech Gadowski (Translator)

Krwawe narodziny sowieckiej Rosji to wstrząsająca lekcja dla świata

Rewolucja i wojna domowa, która odmieniła losy Europy

Wyniszczające walki po upadku imperium carów. Dzika wojna domowa. Bezwzględny terror, jakiego nie znał świat. Nieludzkie okrucieństwa wobec mężczyzn, kobiet i dzieci. Rosja we krwi widziana oczami wszystkich, od robotnika na ulicach Piotrogrodu, przez oficera kawalerii na polu bitwy, po lekarza w improwizowanym szpitalu polowym.

Antony Beevor powraca w swej szczytowej formie. Tworzy portret konfliktu dawnego ładu z nowym bolszewickim porządkiem. Piesze dzieło przełomowe. Wykorzystuje oryginalne dowody z wielu archiwów. Dodaje nowe fakty. Testuje stare twierdzenia i obala mity narosłe po obu stronach rewolucyjnej barykady.

Porywająca lektura dla wszystkich, którzy chcą zrozumieć historię Rosji i burzliwy wiek XX.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction, War, Russian History, Politics, Military History

768 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 2022

About the author

Sir Antony James Beevor is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works, mainly on the Second World War, the Spanish Civil War, and most recently the Russian Revolution and Civil War.
Educated at Abberley Hall School, Winchester College, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Beevor commanded a troop of tanks in the 11th Hussars in Germany before deciding in 1970 to leave the army and become a writer. He was a visiting professor at Birkbeck, University of London, and the University of Kent. His best-selling books, Stalingrad (1998) and Berlin: The Downfall 1945 (2002), have been acclaimed for their detailed coverage of the battles between the Soviet Union and Germany, and their focus on the experiences of ordinary people. Berlin proved very controversial in Russia because of the information it contained from former Soviet archives about the mass rapes carried out by the Red Army in 1945.
Beevor's works have been translated into many languages and have sold millions of copies. He has lectured at numerous military headquarters, staff colleges and establishments in Britain, the US, Europe, and Australia. He has also written for many major newspapers.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Migration to the cities accelerated the growth of the urban working class, the proletariat that Marxists saw as the vanguard of the revolution. From little more than a million inhabitants at the turn of the century, the population of St. Petersburg rose to more than 3 million by the end of 1916. Conditions in factories were appalling and dangerous. Workers were regarded as expendable by the owners since so many peasants were waiting to take their place. There was no right to strike, and no compensation for dismissal. In the case of any dispute, the police always sided with the factory owners…The workers slept in galleried barracks, doss-houses and tenements amid squalor and disease…In such overcrowded conditions, tuberculosis and venereal diseases spread alongside occasional epidemics of cholera and typhus. Life expectancy was as low as in the poorest villages. The only freedom lay in the lowest circle of hell inhabited by the lumpen proletariat of the unemployed – a subterranean world of child prostitution, petty theft, and drunken fights…The only disaster which could make life even worse for the poor in Russia was a major European conflict…”
- Antony Beevor, Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921

The twentieth century might be the most costly, calamitous, and crowded hundred-year span in human history. It had huge wars, terrible pandemics, and cruelties on an industrial scale. Given everything that happened, it is impossible to determine the single, most pivotal moment. But the Russian Revolution is on the shortlist.

Complicated to the point of being convoluted, staggeringly tragic, and peopled by an unforgettable cast of characters – many of the villainous variety – the Russian Revolution and subsequent civil war is an unbeatable subject. I’m always up for reading about it, especially when the author is Antony Beevor, one of the best popular historians working today.

In Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921, Beevor tries to capture the whole epic tale, from the fall of the Romanovs to the end of the Whites. It is a tall task, and one that he only inconsistently accomplishes. Much like the seesawing Russian Civil War itself, Russia is intermittently fascinating and frustrating. At certain times it is brilliant; at other points the insane compression makes it extremely hard to follow along.

Ultimately, this is a book that should have been much longer, or much shorter.

***

Whatever its flaws, Russia is well-structured. It is divided into four parts. The first is the most expansive, starting in 1912, ending in 1917, and covering the outbreak of the First World War, the toppling of Nicholas II, and the Bolshevik seizure of power. The subsequent parts each cover a one-year period. Within each big section, the chapters proceed chronologically, each one helpfully date-stamped.

This methodical approach is necessary, because there is just so much going on. One can spend a lifetime on revolutionary politics alone, with innumerable factions, each with their own notions on how a three-hundred-year dynasty should be replaced. Understanding this period is made even harder by the Bolshevik propensity to cloak themselves in obscurantist language.

Once the civil war breaks out, things somehow get even messier. Color coding the sides – Reds versus Whites – grossly simplifies the vastly different aims among the competing sides, and it can be dizzying trying to sort through it all. There were times when I felt a bit lost, but the step-by-step layout is helpful in this regard.

***

There have been numerous books on the Russian Revolution, many of them quite good. For my money, Beevor’s handling of this period is fine, but not spectacular. It is definitely streamlined, and important figures – such as the Tsar himself – don’t get a lot of time onstage. It almost seemed that Beevor just wanted to get it out of the way, in order to proceed with the internecine conflict that followed.

Beevor is much more invested in the civil war, which pitted the ruthlessly single-minded Bolsheviks against an odd assortment of monarchists, social democrats, republicans, Cossacks, Czechs, and Poles, fitfully aided by Great Britain, France, and the United States. The fortunes of both sides waxed and waned, adding further layers of complexity. Victory for either side was made difficult by the vast spaces of the former Russian empire. Successful offensives often left the winning side overextended. As Beevor notes, this especially hurt the Whites, who were disorganized to start, and were unable to consolidate gains.

***

At five-hundred pages of text, Russia is not a small book, by any means. Taking into account how much it tries to cover, though, five-hundred pages is not enough. Nevertheless, Beevor tries to be comprehensive, which means that many important figures are hurriedly introduced, and many important events skimmed over. I found myself having to keep a list of names, which I constantly referred to. A few hundred more pages would have given the material space to breathe, and – in my opinion – made things easier to follow. Of course, that might just be my big-book bias talking.

Conversely, Beevor could have gone the route of concision, cutting down on extraneous details and taking a big-picture approach, instead of getting into the thickets. Unfortunately, Beevor gets caught in the middle, between too much and not enough.

That said, there are many times when Russia snaps into place, and Beevor’s gift for storytelling – along with his abiding interest in the human element – renders these quibbles unimportant. He has a keen eye for portraiture, and when he takes the time, is able to provide memorable sketches of the opportunists, rogues, murderers, and zealots who populate the narrative.

***

Having read several of Beevor’s books on the Second World War, I know that he is more than a bit skeptical of the Soviet Union. In Stalingrad, it sometimes felt like he didn’t know which side he wanted to win: the Soviets or the Nazis. In The Fall of Berlin, he extensively catalogued the crimes of the Red Army.

Here, Beevor doesn’t hide his feelings about the Bolsheviks. That said, he is no apologist for the Whites. As he demonstrates time and again, both sides were engaged in a kind of inhumanity Olympics. It’s not just the level of violence – which is staggering – but the enthusiasm with which it was carried out. Some of the most effective, chilling sequences in Russia occur when Beevor follows ordinary people as they try to survive a hellscape in which the value of life had cratered.

***

However much he despises them, Beevor gives the Bolsheviks their due. While the fractious Whites quarreled amongst themselves, failed to form an effective administration, and never garnered popular support, the Reds – under the pitiless rule of Vladimir Lenin – were absolutely committed to their goal, whatever the cost.

It is hard to imagine what the end-results of a White triumph would have looked like. We know – all too well – the consequences of their defeat. The creation of the Soviet Union, and the spread of communism that entailed, helped fuel the rise of fascism, creating the conditions for another world war. Millions of ordinary Soviet citizens would die in manmade famines or bloody purges. Millions more would toil in distant gulags. Meanwhile, the inept help the western Allies gave to the Whites helped to create an East-West divide that lingers to this day, even with the Soviet Union’s disappearance. Though imperfect, Beevor does a good job of disentangling many of these threads which – woven together – form one of the bleakest tapestries of an already extremely dark period of history.

[Beata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! Chilling and frightening as one may expect. For a general reader as myself, the book offers the panorama of the five years which created the soviets. This book shook me even though this was not my first read on that period. One of the best books I have read this year.
OverDrive, thank you!

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be mandatory reading for anyone who thinks Lenin/Trotsky are or would have been more humanitarian in their rule than Stalin.

[Henri · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I've heard the there's a Beevor coming about Russia I guessed it would be a general effort to describe the overall Russian campaign in the Second or First World Wars. I even thought it could be on their WW1 campaign - or maybe a general overview of all their military campaigns over the 20th century. What I did not expect was our foremost military historian tackling the issues of insurrection, revolution and early communist state building.

When I picked this up I was interested to see whether this would really turn out to be a history of revolution and civil war and I guess the answer is yes - it is, but not at all similar to the fare we usually get about the birth of Soviet Union. Understandably with his background and incredible backlist the author focuses less on the political and economic machinations behind the scenes (whatever there is on this though is spot on) and instead shines his military expertise on every important issue and event. For example whilst many other political leaning historians would focus on the Bolshevik cliques or political infighting during the rebellious months in late 1917 Petrograd, Beevor takes us to command posts, garrison headquarters and trenches of the Eastern Front - all of it with fascinating detail deriving from detailed research.

This is a fantastic and crucial new way of looking at the identity forming years of the Soviet Union and I am totally here for it and would recommend it to everyone.

[Alan (the Lone Librarian rides again) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

There Will be Blood
A review of the Weidenfeld & Nicolson hardcover edition (May 26, 2022) with reference to its Kindle edition for highlights in status updates.

All too often Whites represented the worst examples of humanity. For ruthless inhumanity, however, the Bolsheviks were unbeatable.

The events of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Russian Civil War are a mass of chaos and confusion which is difficult to follow. The problem is compounded by the concurrent final stages of World War One (1914-18) and the national Wars of Independence started by various provinces of the former Russian Tsarist Empire. Antony Beevor organizes and presents it all in an orderly fashion which makes for a excellent overview.

As brutal as the 1917 Revolution was it is overwhelmed by the brutality of the Civil War that follows. The latter occupies about 2/3rds of the book as the conflict occurs on all points of the compass from Murmansk in the North, Vladivostok in the East, Ukraine & the Caucasus in the South and all along the Western front. The forces are the armies of the so-called "Whites", a convenient bundling name for the various warlords seeking to dethrone the "Reds" i.e. Lenin and the Bolsheviks. The intervention of the Allied powers further complicates the situation. I did have some grounding in the latter having read Anna Reid's A Nasty Little War: The West's Fight to Reverse the Russian Revolution (2023) earlier this year.

The litany of atrocities and war crimes committed by both the White Terror and Red Terror forces makes for grim reading and I self-censored by consciously not using any of those in my updates. Other readers should be aware of those passages though if they prefer to not read disturbing material.

Regardless of the viciousness of the Whites, the lasting impression is that of the treachery and ruthlessness of the Bolsheviks who execute not only the Tsar & family, upper and middle classes of society, but their own allies and forces throughout, foreshadowing the brutality of Stalin's reign in the years to come. The book ends with the so-called "Pride of the Revolution" (as named earlier by Leon Trotsky), the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, being themselves executed in the aftermath of the Kronstadt Rebellion in March 1921.

I know the Russian people. And they’ll show you yet where lobsters spend the winters!*

Footnote
* A variant translation of the Russian idiomatic threat: "Я тебе покажу, где раки зимуют!", which literally translates as "I'll show you where the crayfish hibernate!" This is famously echoed in the line from The Godfather film: "Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."

Trivia and Links
Author Antony Beevor (1946-) is a military historian whose primary focus has been World War Two and its various campaigns. His most popular work (based on GR ratings and reviews) is Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege, 1942-1943 (1998). His next book is Rasputin and the Dowager Empress's Dream to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in March 2026. The book is not yet listed on Goodreads (as of late October 2025). Read some further information with a synopsis at The Bookseller from February 19, 2025.

Toronto Trivia: One of the few Romanovs to escape being murdered by the Bolsheviks was Tsar Nicolas II's younger sister, the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanov (1882-1960). After an initial escape to Denmark, she eventually settled in Toronto, Canada and is buried in York Cemetery, North York. Read further at Public History in Practice.

Status Updates
I used quite a few quoted excerpts as status updates while I was reading this book. Several were in relation to the Estonian War of Independence but most were about overall key incidents or observations. You can view those below this review in GR. You can also see them (in reverse order) under All Status Updates for the Book as I seem to be the only one who has marked excerpts recently.

Soundtrack
Although it is titled around an earlier uprising against Tsarist rule, a song called "1905" by the Estonian band Sõpruse puiestee (Estonian: Friendship Boulevard) is also appropriate for the 1917 uprising. It is from the album Mustale merele [To the Black Sea] (2003). It can be heard on YouTube here in Estonian and here in Russian.
A translation of the lyrics in English (from the Estonian) are below:

Next to the factories where the grass grew
We stood and held each other's hands
Next to the factories -
Where the villagers drove down the hill with carts.

A strike started next to the factories this year
And I couldn't find a job
Next to the factories, you suffocated in the living room
On this curfew night.

Next to the factories where the grass grew
We stood and held each other's hands
Was there any hope at all next to the factories?
You answered: "What a beautiful day."

CHORUS (Sung after each verse above)
We weren't standing under the flags
We were not hit by bullets
We dyed the sheets red on the bed
With the blood that came from your lips.

[Peter Kavanagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent first half but it becomes bogged down in detail as soon as we reach the civil war period. Now, I like detail but the enormously convoluted Russian civil war is difficult to deal with as narrative. Personally I think he would have been better off sticking to a few themes. Apart from that I thought it was excellent.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

How a violent regime was replaced by an even more ruthless one. It was a period of incredible confusion; revolution was born out of profound dissatisfaction with a corrupt inefficient parasitic regime which crumbled because of its inability to defeat German armies while maintaining a minimum of organization at home within the civil society.

The genius of Lenin was at work in creating a minority movement which succeeded in taking over the society. Very quickly the ideology of marxism became just a brand name as the governance installed had nothing to do with the well being of the proletariat. Lenin and the Bolshevists knew what was good for the people. Their assessment was that the population was not ready to praticipate in self government. Nothing deterred Lenin from his goal of installing a structure of government run by an idelogical elite with him becoming an absolute dictator. The goal was winning at all costs and nothing was spared, the cruelty was just without limits, one should be warned that there were a lot of atrocities committed and described in the book.

The author has chosen to focus his narrative skills on the different regional theaters of conflict between 1917 and 1921. Many Russian military and paramilitary groups were infighting for control of the country and various alliances were made and undone with armies of many different nationalities. It was confusing for all those involved but the author somehow manages to create some clarity out of the whole chaos.

For the Russian people it meant going from an autocratic regime with few real human rights to a society run by a dictatorship even more violent, as any dissidence meant torture and death at the hands of the Bolshevists. The new regime had many of the most damning characteristics of the monarchy which it replaced becoming even more ruthless. The Bolshevist regime created the Cheka a counter revolutionary police, the organization morphed into the KGB in the USSR and eventually the FSB after 1990.

The violence and the cruelty have become a permanent characteristic of the Russian culture which has gained more emphasis from the period of the revolution. The current political culture of the present Russian dictatorship has its roots in the Russian revolution. It seems that Russia has always been a police state run by an unelected elite with an imperialistic bias. For quite a while the Russians hid their imperialistic views under the cover of the communist ideology but nowadays they do not even bother invoking a higher purpose. Russia is trying to take over Ukraine militarily and tries to destroy the country and its inhabitants. The absence of any idology to justify the aggression is telling. This book makes a compelling case for Lenin as one of the fathers of that culture of aggression domestically and as a characteristic of its foreign policy. It all started with his tactic of dehumanizing political adversaries and once that path is chosen it can become very ugly.

[Mircea Petcu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Războiul Civil Rus a debutat cu "cruciada băieților": revolta elevilor de la școlile militare din Petrograd și Moscova împotriva Sovnarkomului (guvernul bolșevic). Depășiți numeric și slab înarmați, singura lor speranță era sosirea lui Kerenski (fostul premier) cu cavaleria. Aceștia nu știau că Kerenski fugise în siguranța oferită de Occident deghizat în marinar, ceea ce nu se poate spune despre familia imperială pe care a trimis-o la Tobolsk. Părășiți de profesorii-instructori și demoralizați, elevii s-au predat.

Neînțelegând lupta de clasă, ofițerii de pe front au primit Revoluția din Octombrie la fel ca pe cea din Februarie: cu apatie. Inițial, Armata Voluntarilor era formată doar din 3000 de ofițeri și câțiva soldați. Dar abuzurile Gărzilor Roșii (muncitori înarmați) și ale marinarilor au crescut rapid numărul soldaților Albi. Au fost ajutați și de decizia neinspirată a lui Troțki de a dezarma Legiunea Cehoslovacă, care a preluat practic controlul Căii Ferate Transsiberiene.

În ciuda succeselor inițiale, Armatele Albe descentralizate și necoordonate au fost înfrânte de ceea ce strategii militari numesc "înfrângere în amânunt". Bolșevicii au folosit tactica lui Napoleon, de concentrare a tuturor forțelor într-un loc anume, atacând decisiv armatele inamicului și împiedicându-le să facă joncțiunea. La care se adaugă starea mai bună a căilor ferate din centrul european al Rusiei, care a permis mutarea rapidă a trupelor de pe un front pe altul.

Alți factori care au contribuit la înfrângerea Armatelor Albe: dorința hanatelor cazace semiindependente de a se desprinde de Rusia și de a forma o federație; imperialismul conducătorilor Albi, care a îndepărtat popoare și state posibil aliate, cum ar fi Finlanda, Țările Baltice și Polonia; sprijinul subdimensionat al Occidentului, în ciuda insistențelor lui Churchill; brutalitatea Armatelor Albe care a făcut dificilă strângerea recruților și a crescut numărul dezertorilor (ofițerii au reintrodus detestatele pedepse corporale); pragmatismul Armatei Roșii, care a folosit ofițeri din fosta armată țaristă.

Recomand

[Lewis Woolston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding history of a grim episode, Beevor's writing is brilliant as usual.
I've always been fascinated with the question of could the great disasters of history such as the First World War and the Russian Revolution have been prevented? After reading this i'm of the opinion that no, it couldn't have been. The Tsarist regime and it's parasitic, despotic aristocracy were so rotten, corrupt and incompetent that revolution was inevitable.
The other major achievement of this book is to smash the leftist narrative that Lenin was a good guy who had the people's interests at heart and would have made a socialist utopia if only he hadn't died and Stalin hadn't taken over.
The author shows conclusively that Lenin pursued a policy of mass murder, torture, terror and repression from day one. The Tsarist regime may have been thuggish, cruel and prone to brutality but it was nothing compared to the cold, clinical use of mass-murder as a policy tool which the Bolshievik regime practiced.
A pretty comprehensive history of this important episode and vital for understanding the horrors that darkened Russia and Eastern Europe for almost a century afterwards.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

History + Antony Beevor = Joy

Antony Beevor has delivered another great history book with Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921. The book starts in the prelude to the Revolution: Petrograd, December 30th 1916 and the murder of Rasputin by Prince Felix Yusupov in an attempt to save old Russia. This of course failed, the Tsarist regime collapse and the provisional government, impotent and hamstrung took over by Prince Lvov and then Alexander Kerensky. The prolonging of the war, the Kornilov affair and the agitation of the far left groups ultimately led to its failure and the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917. Now all hell will break lose, Russia will go through hell and it’s people will suffer unimaginable horrors.

What is great about Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921 is the balance between the endless slaughter, suffering and tragedy alongside the military and political history. Beevor gets a great mix between the three, so the reader can gain a good sense of the full picture. This was a pleasant surprise, as I expected this to be pure military history. Beevor has proved to me to be a solid historian, one that is well worth reading. His writing style is clear, things are explained well and detail is at the right level. For me, this would suit any entry level reader to the subject. The book, though has a lot to offer for someone who is more familiar the subject and Russia itself.

Civil Wars are notoriously hard to write about and covey to a reader, as they are complicated with multiple factions with conflicting aims pushing in different directions. Beevor tackled the complicated Spanish Civil War and has now delivered on the Russian one. The best part about this book, however is that he actually provides analysis.

For example, he explains why the Whites lost. Their armies were too divided, the Estonian and Northern Armies, the Denikin and Wrangel armies in the south, the Don Cossacks in the Ukraine and the Czech legion, Serbian corps in the East. Where as the Reds were centralised, so we’re able to deal with these fractured armies as one. The ideology of the Whites was also fractured, reactionary Monarchists worked with Social Revolutionaries, Russian Imperialists with Ukrainian and Baltic Nationalists, the Reds on the other hand wanted to create a socialist state. Foreign intervention on the Whites side was also half hearted and didn’t seem to have a grand plan, nor came at once. Japan in the east, British attachments at Archangel or in the Baltic, American or German troops. Again all had different aims and came at different times with no apparent overarching concentrated support for the Whites. Finally, the Whites didn’t fully understand the changes Russia was going through, it’s forces were too heavy with officers, who wanted to push Russia backwards. When taking over a city they persecuted the peasants who they should have tried to bring around to their way of thinking. After all the peasants were betrayed by the Reds. The Whites committed numerous and senseless Pogroms against the Jews, killing more people for no other reason than prejudice, leaving them to be hated as much as the Reds and distrusted by the Western Democracies.

Beevor’s conclusion is also great. He explains how the actions, mass executions and violence of the Reds and Whites were a prelude to terror of Hitler and Stalin. It also influenced the horrors of the Spanish Civil War and was also a direct cause of WWII 20 years later. Beevor states the Russian Civil War was not just a civil war but a global one. One of multiple nations fighting over one sixth of the earths surface for different reasons. From
Japan and American soldiers in Vladivostok, to Poland fighting for survival in Warsaw. From the Finish Civil War in the north to the fight for independence in the Ukraine, Don and Caucasus regions in the south. The scale and length is incomprehensible. Even after redding about this for years I cannot get head around how big and long this was. One cannot even begin to understand the loss of human life and immense suffering which must have followed it. How people carries on and troops were mobilised, I will never know. I will read this book again in time, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Antony Beevor's Russia: Revolution and Civil War provides a serviceable narrative of Russia's great upheaval of 1917 through 1921. Beevor of course is a military historian, which likely explains why he glosses over the political and cultural background of the Revolution in a terse introductory chapter. He plunges us directly into the chaos of Revolution, with a war-weary public ousting the hapless Tsar Nicholas, the Provisional Government floundering about and Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolsheviks seizing power in a well-orchestrated coup. The balance of Beevor's book focuses on the subsequent civil war, which he stresses as a chaotic struggle of endless competing factions. Besides the Bolsheviks bloodily imposing a worker's state on Russia, there are the White Armies consisting of aristocrats, Army officers, supporters of the Provisional Government and others opposed to communism; foreign interventionists (Britain, France, Japan, the US) backing the Whites; German Freikorps, Latvian riflemen, Cossack atamans and assorted freebooters exploiting the chaos for blood and plunder; nationalist movements in Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic States and Central Asia; sometimes in alliance, sometimes fighting each other. Beevor manages to keep this whirl of names, dates and places straight, peppering the narrative with colorful details and cameos of key figures (Cheka leader Felix Dzerzhinsky is amusingly described as possessing "a pale, ascetic El Greco face, a wispy wizard's beard and hooded eyes"). There’s also a clear-eyed description of massacres, assassinations and other atrocities committed by all sides, along with the famines, plagues and environmental hardships that pushed Russia’s death toll into the million. What Beevor doesn't provide, however, is much detail about the politics of this era, aside from references to the Red Terror and rather superficial discussions of Lenin's brutal efforts towards collectivization. For those who lack the patience for the textured detail of something like Orlando Figes' A People's Tragedy, Beevor's account is a fine introduction; but it's unlikely to impress those already versed in Red October and its violent aftermath.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating history of the Russian Revolution and Civil War from a military history perspective.

It was good, but as I often find in Beevor chronicles it focuses too heavily on military history at the expense of political and social history (which makes sense, as he is a military historian). He does a great job, however, at pointing out the atrocities and infighting committed by both sides of the fighting, and showing how convoluted the alliances were and how complex the struggle for control was.

[Elina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a really hard time finishing this book! Totally biased and full of the author's anticommunist points. All the facts were presented only on one side and the great effort to present the Bolsheviks as the "evils" was by far too obvious! Could the author explain how the Bolsheviks eventually managed to lead this huge country, even though (lol) the majority of the peasants and workers was against them??? 600 pages of propaganda and narrow-mindedness!

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting detailed look at the Russian Revolution and the decent into Civil war between the red army and the whites.

[Stefan Mitev · Rating 4 out of 5]

В една класация руската революция от 1917 г. е третото най-значимо събитие на XX век, след кацането на Луната и атомните бомбардировки. Възходът на Ленин и болшевиките е причината за всичко лошо в източна Европа за последните 100 години.

Но как се случва? През 1917 г. Руската империя агонизира в ужаса на Първата световна война. Населението гладува, армията е зле снабдена и деморализирана. Германците правят пробив след пробив и се приближават към столицата Петроград. През февруари избухва революция, която сваля цар Николай Втори от престола. Назначено е временно правителство на Александър Керенски. Неговата офанзива срещу германците е пълен провал и допълнително отслабва фронта. На 7 ноември 1917 г. (стар стил) избухва Великата октомврийска революция със залп от крайцера Аврора край военната база Кронщад. Болшевишката партия на Ленин и Троцки обявява класова война на буржоазията и отговорните за войната. Започват неописуеми зверства спрямо всички свързани с бившата власт. Приема се Григорианският календар и столицата се премества в Москва. На трети март 1918 г. е подписан позорният за Русия Брест-Литовки мирен договор, при който с цената на огромни отстъпки страната излиза от "Голямата война", но гражданската такава продължава с пълна сила.

Белогвардейците, защитаващи старата власт, първоначално постигат значителни успехи с подгрепата на съюзниците от Антантата, които целят въозбновяване на източния фронт. Чехословашкият легион в Сибир завладява град след град. Но постепенно развоят на войната се обръща. Армиите на Колчак, Деникин, Врангел и Юденич са разпокъсани, действат ригидно и некоординирано. Срещу тях е изправена централизирана диктатура, която успява да спечели повече доброволци за каузата си. И двете враждуващи страни подлагат местното население на невиждан дотогава терор. Краят на руската империя и началото на болшевишкия режим е най-значимото и вредно събитие от края на Първата световна война. Комунистическите престъпници вземат властта със сила, чиито последици виждаме и днес.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rich and well-written study of one of history’s most convoluted wars.

This is largely a work of military history, and Beevor spends a lot of time on strategy, tactics, commanders, and such. Beevor vividly covers the Bolsheviks’ and the Whites’ reigns of terror and the hopeless situations endured by countless people caught in the middle or drafted into their armies. The number of enemy armies the Bolsheviks confronted is mind-boggling, the conflict consisting of numerous civil and international wars happening at more or less the same time, full of countless individuals enduring terrible cases of famine, rape, torture, murder, and other horrors inflicted by combatants of all sides (Beevor’s ability is to organize all of this into a coherent narrative is kind of amazing) Like his other works, Beevor describes unimaginable horrors in graphic detail, and he estimates the casualties (mostly civilian) at twelve million. He attributes the Red victory to an “utterly centralist and ruthlessly authoritarian structure” that “enabled them to survive even disastrous incompetence.”

Another highlight is Beevor’s coverage of the foreign powers intervening in the war; some books on this conflict give only a brief or hazy picture of their involvement, but here it’s pretty detailed. Beevor also shows how the Bolshevik war effort would use so many of the tools used by Stalin, such as torture, forced labor, gulags, famine, etc. Lenin and Stalin were certainly similar in those respects. In many histories of the war, the White armies lose through sheer incompetence, and this telling is no exception.

The narrative is compelling and insightful, if a bit slowly paced at times. There could have been some more coverage of the motives of leaders and soldiers, or of the war’s aftermath. Some figures appear and disappear throughout the narrative, and the discussion of their overall impact may seem incomplete to some readers (like Stalin or Trotsky) Other readers may wish for more coverage of politics. For example, the Whites as a movement or coalition aren’t really covered in detail, and instead Beevor focuses on the biographies of their absurd leaders.

The book is well-researched, but there are some small quibbles: at one point Sergei Alliluev is called “Boris.” Beevor also writes that the Bolsheviks switched from the Gregorian to the Julian calendar (wasn’t it the other way around?) Ludendorff is also called a “field marshal,” and Mikhail Bakunin is called a prince. Artillery rounds are called “case-shot” (aren’t those cannonballs?) A lot of books use the term “Ober Ost,” short for Oberbefehlshaber der gesamten Deutschen Streitkräfte im Osten, but Beevor writes of “Oberkommando Ost”, a term I haven’t come across in either English- or German-language books on the Great War (like I said, quibbles)

An engaging, nuanced and readable work.

[Alexandru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Antony Beevor is the master of World War II battles having covered Stalingrad, Berlin, Crete or Arnhem. So when I saw that he was going to tackle the Russian Civil War I knew it was going to be fantastic.

Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 is a military history which deals with the many convoluted factions, battles and commanders of the civil war. What differentiates it from other histories of the civil war is that it doesn't focus on the political leaders as much but rather shines the spotlight on the military leaders. Many of the great battles and campaigns are explained in good detail with maps for reference.

Aside from the battles there is also considerable details about both the Red terror and the White terror. The international intervention in the civil war is covered especially the US, British and Japanese forces as well as the adventures of the Czech legion.

There seems to be a greater focus on the White armies and its commanders: Kornilov, Kolchak, Denikin, Wrangel, Yudenich, Kappel and many of the Cossack Atamans. The varied White movements and competing factions are also described.

My main gripe with the book is that it is probably a bit too short at a bit over 600 pages. This means that Beevor had to completely skip over many of the lesser known theatres of the war such as Mongolia where Roman von Ungern-Sternber is just mentioned. The Hungarian bolshevik republic is allocated only one page and there is no mention of what actually happened. Also, due to the focus on the White forces it feels that the Bolsheviks were a bit neglected. The fall of the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaidjan states is not covered at all.

For anyone that is interested in the Russian civil war this is essential reading. Beevor's style is very easy to read and is quite fast paced. It is very difficult to put down this book. Now I just need to get onto the author's other books, probably with the Spanish Civil War.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this tome with the hope of learning more about the people who I think of as the heavy weights of Russia history ie, Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin.

Unfortunately the three men feature in the story of the Revolution and the Civil War far less than I was expecting. They obviously were at the centre of recounts of decision making but the real 'stars' of Beevor's book are the fiercely fought battles, the atrocities committed by absolutely everyone taking part in the Civil War, the generals with their idiosyncrasies and perversions and the absolute crushing of the poor and the lowly.

Beevor believes that without the Russian Civil War, exhaustively and expertly descibed by him in this book, that Hilter and the devastation his reign engendered would never have eventuated. I am not sure if other historians agree with Beevor but I can believe that the way the Civil War was fought could definitely have been a blueprint for future conflagration.

Antony Beevor is a recognised author of many books about significant wars throughout the 20th century and he certainly know his stuff!

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Englantilainen sotahistorioitsija Antony Beevor pureutuu uudessa tietokirjassaan "Venäjän vallankumous ja sisällissota" (WSOY, 2022) Venäjällä ja sen itsenäisyytensä ensiaskeleita ottaneissa naapurivaltioissa käytyyn konfliktiin, joka sikisi tsaarin ajan hallinnosta, syntyi ensimmäisen maailmansodan kurimuksesta ja johti miljoonia ihmisiä nieluunsa temmanneeseen kärsimysnäytelmään.

"Venäjän vallankumous ja sisällissota" osoittautui raskaaksi luettavaksi. Selkeän kokonaiskuvan saaminen oli hankalampaa kuin odotin. Sota ei ollut yksinomaan venäläisten keskinäinen välienselvittely, vaan mukana oli muun muassa englantilaisia, kiinalaisia, amerikkalaisia, japanilaisia, ranskalaisia, saksalaisia, puolalaisia, tsekkejä ja tietysti kaikkia itsenäistymään pyrkineiden reunavaltioiden asukkaista koostuneita joukko-osastoja. Taisteluita käytiin monella eri rintamalla ja komentajaportaassa hääri runsaasti erilaisia hahmoja, joiden asemaa ja roolia sai kertailla. Sotaonnen vaihdellessa loikkaaminen leiristä toiseen ei ollut mitenkään tavatonta.

Suomen sisällissodan tapahtumia käsitellään muutaman aukeaman verran. Vuoden 1918 terrorista puhuessaan Beevor käyttää esimerkkinä Kouvolan suuntaan sijoitettua kauhutarinaa, joka ei nykytutkimuksen mukaan taida pitää paikkaansa. Lähteenä hän käyttää saksalaiskomentaja Rüdiger von der Goltzin muistelmia. Lukijalle herää väkisin kysymys, mahtaako teoksessa olla enemmänkin sotapropagandan värittämiä juttuja, joilla ei ole sen kummempaa todellisuuspohjaa!

Ei sillä: Venäjän sisällissota oli tavattoman julma, eikä toista osapuolta voi pitää paljon toista parempana. Todistajanlausunnot puhuvat karua kieltään toinen toistaan verisemmistä joukkomurhista, teloituksista ja raiskauksista. Siviilit saivat osansa, paitsi suoranaisen väkivaltana mutta myös nälänhätää aiheuttaneina viljan pakko-ottoina. Juutalaisia tuntuivat vihaavan kaikki, pogromit olivat yleisiä.

Beevorin näkökulma tuntuu olevan enemmän valkoinen kuin punainen ja sitä on höystetty melko raskaalla kädellä englantilaisin maustein, tai ainakin minusta tuntui välillä että Winston Churchillin näkemyksiä Venäjän tapahtumista nostettiin valokeilaan vähintään yhtä paljon kuin vaikkapa V.I. Leninin.

Verenvuodatuksen viimein loputtua bolsevikit voittivat, mistä seurasi toinen toistaan kamalampia juttuja Venäjän historiassa. Lukijana jäin toki miettimään, mitä valkoisten voitto olisi sitten mahtanut maailmanhistorialle merkitä, etenkin kun heidän edustamansa vanha tsaarinvalta ei ollut mikään onnela sekään. Olisiko itänaapurista voinut tulla jonkinlainen demokratia? Kukapa tietää, mutta ainakaan valkoisten agendalistalla ei ollut Suomen tai muiden reunavaltioiden itsenäisyys, mikä osittain romutti heidän mahdollisuuksiaan sisällissodassa.

Jos pidit kirjasta, niin otapa lukuusi myös Tuomo Polvisen erinomainen Venäjän vallankumous ja Suomi 1917-1920.

[bernardhughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puts current issues in perspective

I had almost zero knowledge of the scale of Western intervention to stop the Boloshvik revolution and it gave me a perspective on the roots of Stalin distrust for Allies in 1939. Read The Glossary at the end first. Horrendous brutality on all sides made me think a 'plague on all your houses' .

[Moravian1297 · Rating 1 out of 5]

The usually dependable, objective, nuts and bolts facts only machine that is an Antony Beevor book, has here descended into a vitriolic, rabid personal attack on Lenin and the Bolsheviks.
It's laden with nothing more than what seems to be biased opinion and historical rumours.
His hatered toward the afore mentioned Lenin and the Bolsheviks spews forth to the point where you can actually feel the spital and foaming drool fly out from the pages and run down your disbelieving face!
I really found it hard to continue reading, but I persevered to the bitter end and it's left me feeling very disappointed that a once competent, readable and often enjoyable historian (Stalingrad, Berlin: The Downfall 45 and The Spanish Civil War being particular favourites) has joined the ranks of the right wing, bitter, British nationalistic, gammon faced, pseudo-historians like the awful Max Hastings, the utterly vile David Starsky and the bigoted, fascistic, deluded, BritNat Neil Oliver!
Mostly a collection of extremely partisan opinion and anti-communist folk/fairy tales (an example being, an unsupported yarn about a mother who had darned her white soldier son's socks, and after hearing of her son's death in a massacre, supposedly made the pilgrimage to the mass grave site, where all she found was one of HER sons darned socks! This is told as if it were a bona fide, genuine fact, rather than the "old wives tale" that it most obviously is), an utter waste of paper and £15 from my pocket!
On one footnote, Beevor even tries to claim the Russians lost the battle of Kursk in WWII!

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book does not follow the author’s preface. Far from expanding my knowledge about the Russian revolution and subsequent Civil War, Beevor narrows the text down to a dry, stodgy catalogue of names and events, the research must have been extensive, none of which appear linked in any way to the story. I lasted for 215 pages and gave up, none the wiser on ‘The Reds, The Whites, The Bolsheviks, The Mensheviks or any of their political and ideological strategies and aims, or lack of, nothings discussed.

To be fair it’s not an easy subject, other books I’ve read on the topic from Orlando Figes and Richard Pipes are heavy going too but the slog is worth it, this book isn’t.

I got the impression that the author has a bias towards the Bolsheviks, he talks up the Whites and Czarists, spending more time on their ‘heroic’ efforts. Perhaps this is the reason the book doesn’t work for me, there is no enthusiasm for the story. Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin are only sporadically mentioned in a derogatory way. Nasty as the Bolsheviks were the Whites and Tsarists were just as bad, both sides committing terrible atrocities. IMO a book on the Russian Revolution should not be devoid of a study of these three historical figures, this book ignores all of them in this context.

I do remember reading Beevor’s celebrated work; Stalingrad, but I no longer have the book which suggests I wasn’t that impressed. I won’t be looking for any of this author’s future titles as his style is not for me.

[David Canford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beevor is a master of his craft. His books on the Second World War and the Fall of Berlin, I found to be excellent so I was looking forward to this one.
The lead up to the Revolution was extremely good but once it moved on to the Russian civil war I found it became rather a slog - endless names, battles, etc. I probably won't finish it.

[Xander · Rating 3 out of 5]

"For far too long we have made the mistake of talking about wars as a single entity, when they are often a conglomeration of different conflicts, mixing national resentments, ethnic hatreds and class warfare. And when it comes to civil wars, there is also a clash of centralism against regionalism and authoritarianism against libertarianism. The idea of a purely 'Russian' civil war is another misleading simplification. It prompted one historian recently to describe it instead as 'a world war condensed'.

A number of historians have rightly emphasised the point that the February revolution in 1917 did not provoke a counter-revolution. The overthrow of the Tsarist regime prompted a wide variety of reactions among the former ruling class: a resignation to events, a bitterness at the incompetence and obstinacy of the imperial court, yet also an initial optimism among its more liberal and idealistic members.

[...]

Spiritual values never stood a chance against a fanatical determination to destroy all those [values] of the past, both good and bad. No country can escape the ghosts of its past, least of all Russia.

[...]

All too often Whites [anti-Bolsheviks] represented the worst examples of humanity. For ruthless inhumanity, however, the Bolsheviks were unbeatable." (pp. 501-02)

Thus concludes military historian Antony Beevor in his fascinating account on the Russian revolution and its subsequent civil war. The ruthless Terror that Lenin, Trotsky and their Cheka unleashed on millions of innocent people spring out. Nevertheless, the establishment of a totalitarian Communist state took almost for years, during which many battles were fought between the Red Army and their opponents. What makes this conflict so complex is that fact that the Bolsheviks' opponents were an opportunistic collection of reactionary forces, Soviet Revolutionaries (leftists who opposed the Bolsheviks), a variety of Czech, Polish, etc. military groups, warlords with their private armies and Allied support (mainly US, British, French and Japanese).

Beevor shows with Russia (2022) that the outcome of the Russian civil war - which by the way cost more than 12 million people their lives - was not determined beforehand. There were multiple times that the Reds seemed on the verge of collapse and there were many missed or wasted opportunities to have destroyed Lenin's terroristic regime. Yet, in the end, infighting, pitiful squabbles, ethnic hatreds, private interests, etc. made sure that there never arose an effective anti-Bolshevik coalition.

Thus, Beevors conclusion cited above is the only correct one: the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Civil War was a multidimensional conflict and in one sense can be seen as the prolongation of the First World War after the Versailles Treaty of 1919. The conflict shows human baseness and vileness in its full glory, with all sides committing attrocities - slaughtering innocents and prisoners of wars in the most brutal ways, and often resorting to ethnic cleansing and genocide. Yet the inhuman terror the Bolsheviks unleashed - first on Russia and later on the world at large - can easily be compared to Adolf Hitler and his Nazi's. Perhaps it even trumps nazism in terms of victims, repression and genocide...

Definitely a must-read for anyone interested in the history behind this conflict. Beevor offers an amazing account of all the events and developments during 1917-1921. Although the second part of the book (years 1919-1920) could have used better editing. The book itself spans 500+ pages and seriously collapses (in terms of reading pleasure) somewhere around 50%. Perhaps a somewhat shorter, more concise edition would have been better.

[Carol Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely top notch history of the Russian Civil War. Beevor covers every front from Siberia to Sebastopol, and gives an unforgettable picture of the colorful, cruel, charismatic White commanders who lead the doomed struggle against Bolshevism. Some of them were idealists, some were bandit chiefs. Some were fighting for a homeland of their own, some for a return to aristocratic splendor. Few of them were capable of seeing the big picture and reaching out to form necessary alliances. The Reds emerge as much better organized, more ruthless, and more systematic. The one complaint I have is that the author doesn't add an afterword to talk about the fate of the thousands of White Russian families, who fled from Russia and ended up settling all around the world, from Paris to Shanghai. What happened to them? Where are their descendants today? That could be a whole book in itself!

[Walden Effingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some may question the wisdom of reading this as a "holiday read". I'm sure I'm not the usual reader of Antony Beevor's books, but nevertheless this is a very important book.
I came to the subject with no knowledge whatsoever (and I felt the book presumed the reader had at least some knowledge).
I chose to read this as child#1 is studying the Russian Revolution and Civil War for a-level, and I thought I could then quiz him on it (-actually, he has a better overview of the subject than me).
Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book. That is to say, if enjoyment is the right word. As it's detail of the atrocities that occurred is astonishing. (And sheds some light on the present Ukrainian War.)
There are some take home messages for modern life:
1. Revolutions can be bred by minority parties, and complacent societies can be caught napping.
2.Humanity may have developed in the last 100 years, but I suspect it is still capable of atrocity.
3. Beware politicians who generate their own narrative (to be fair , they all do this), that can quickly replace the truth , and then drive agendas.
4. If there is ever the whiff of revolution in the air, leave the country immediately!

[Hamid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent account of the Russian Revolution(s) and Civil War but, despite its length, is only ever a surface look at the incredibly complex period. Some snippets of what you expect - or rather, want - from Beevor - which are the sort of stark and gonzo tales of the individuals caught up in the mess and their fates. But Figes managed that some 25 years ago in A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891 - 1924 with a greater depth and much more context by way of the build-up to revolution (albeit the scholarship at probably the same popular level). Beevor is clearly no Richard Overy.

The surface-depth the book does provide on major players - Lenin, Zinoviev, Kornilov, Denekin et al - is mostly well-rounded, appreciating their different ideological motivations, base human instincts, crimes and heroism without ever painting any specifically as some monstrous caricature.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dryer Than China's Rivers

This book was very dry and very long.

It was a timely selection for me, as I wanted to see if I could learn some insights into previous wars and how the current one could be stopped.

Instead, I just found this a very dry and bland book.

It is probably me, as I am really not a fan of war history or military history, and this book was a combination of both of them.

2.8/5

[Davy Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by Solzhenitsyn's August 1914 too, about the 2nd Battle of Tannenburg where the Germans defeated the Russians at the very start of WW1.
That one was a personal one for me, as my Dads Mom escaped Czarist Russia (Lithuania) with her Mom and Sister and got to Ellis Island in July 1914.
Another book I really liked was called The Bloody White Baron about a WW1 veteran and Baltic German who rose to be a bloody leader of the Whites in the Civil War. Lots of interesting takes on Mongolia, the Dali Lama and stuff out China way in the early 1920s.

[Цветомира Маринкова · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5* заради излишната информация в някои глави;
Иначе я препоръчвам с две ръце. Би била полезна. За всеки.