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The Eastern Front #4
The Splintered Empires: The Eastern Front 1917–21
At the beginning of 1917, the three empires fighting on the Eastern Front were reaching their breaking points, but none was closer than Russia. After the February Revolution, Russia's ability to wage war faltered and her last desperate gamble, the Kerensky Offensive, saw the final collapse of her army. This helped trigger the Bolshevik Revolution and a crippling peace, but the Central Powers had no opportunity to exploit their gains and, a year later, both the German and Austro-Hungarian empires surrendered and disintegrated.
Concluding his acclaimed series on the Eastern Front in World War I, Prit Buttar comprehensively details not only these climactic events, but also the 'successor wars' that raged long after the armistice of 1918. New states rose from the ashes of empire and war raged as German forces sought to keep them under the aegis of the Fatherland. These unresolved tensions between the former Great Powers and the new states would ultimately lead to the rise of Hitler and a new, terrible world war only two decades later.
Concluding his acclaimed series on the Eastern Front in World War I, Prit Buttar comprehensively details not only these climactic events, but also the 'successor wars' that raged long after the armistice of 1918. New states rose from the ashes of empire and war raged as German forces sought to keep them under the aegis of the Fatherland. These unresolved tensions between the former Great Powers and the new states would ultimately lead to the rise of Hitler and a new, terrible world war only two decades later.
498 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 19, 2017
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About the author
Prit Buttar
19 books116 followersPrit Buttar studied medicine at Oxford and London before joining the British Army as a doctor. After leaving the army, he has worked as a GP, first near Bristol and now in Abingdon. He is extensively involved in medical politics, both at local and national level, and served on the GPs’ Committee of the British Medical Association. He appears from time to time on local and national TV and radio, speaking on a variety of medical issues. He contributes regularly to the medical press. He is an established expert on the Eastern Front in 20th century military history.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 13, 2019
It all came down to food. The First World War began with a mighty clashing of mass armies and Industrial-Age weapons. It ended with mutinous soldiers struggling to fill empty bellies. Prit Buttar may have thought, when starting this last part of a multi-volume series on the Eastern Front, that he was writing a book about battles and military strategy. There’s plenty of both in SPLINTERED EMPIRES, but mainly this is a story of starvation, a proof of Napoleon’s axiom that armies march on their stomachs.
The Russian army had nearly bled to death by 1917, and its soldiers stood on the verge of mutiny. The death blow, however, came from the hungry workers who overthrew the tsar in the name of bread and land, and from soldiers’ urgent need to go home and sow their fields. Austria held out slightly longer, until 1918, but the Hungarian government’s hoarding of food made most non-Hungarian soldiers malnourished and desperate. One last failed offensive against Italy broke their morale, permanently, and Austria-Hungary was out of the war.
The German army, better disciplined than its allies’ or its enemies’, eventually found itself crippled by supply shortages at home and in the ranks. Germany’s need for grain obliged the high command to tie down 45 divisions to the Eastern Front, to ensure the shipment of wheat from Ukraine. Those divisions might instead have ensured the success of the last Western offensive of the war, Operation Michael. German soldiers blunted that offensive’s effectiveness by stopping to scrounge for food in the French countryside. The offensive would not have taken place at all if Germany’s 1917 U-boat campaign had succeeded in starving out the British. It didn’t - British farmers simply converted two million acres of pasture land to cereal cultivation, and made up the loss of imported foodstuffs thereby.
In BLOODLANDS (2009), Timothy Snyder argued that the genocidal policies of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany stemmed ultimately from concerns about food and starvation. Loyal Russian workers and ethnic Germans needed to eat, so subject peoples like the Poles and Ukrainians needed to starve. Buttar’s book suggests the origin of this murderous ideology: the experiences of the First World War, particularly its last two years. Germans and Russians remembered the privations of the war as much as its glories, and certainly remembered that hunger had broken their old empires. War also tends to produce binary and zero-sum thinking: we are good and they are not; if we want something we must take it from them, or we will be weak and vulnerable. Most of us would like to think that bloody wars teach their survivors the value of peace. In the case of the Great War, the lesson the losers learned was the value of genocide.
The Russian army had nearly bled to death by 1917, and its soldiers stood on the verge of mutiny. The death blow, however, came from the hungry workers who overthrew the tsar in the name of bread and land, and from soldiers’ urgent need to go home and sow their fields. Austria held out slightly longer, until 1918, but the Hungarian government’s hoarding of food made most non-Hungarian soldiers malnourished and desperate. One last failed offensive against Italy broke their morale, permanently, and Austria-Hungary was out of the war.
The German army, better disciplined than its allies’ or its enemies’, eventually found itself crippled by supply shortages at home and in the ranks. Germany’s need for grain obliged the high command to tie down 45 divisions to the Eastern Front, to ensure the shipment of wheat from Ukraine. Those divisions might instead have ensured the success of the last Western offensive of the war, Operation Michael. German soldiers blunted that offensive’s effectiveness by stopping to scrounge for food in the French countryside. The offensive would not have taken place at all if Germany’s 1917 U-boat campaign had succeeded in starving out the British. It didn’t - British farmers simply converted two million acres of pasture land to cereal cultivation, and made up the loss of imported foodstuffs thereby.
In BLOODLANDS (2009), Timothy Snyder argued that the genocidal policies of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany stemmed ultimately from concerns about food and starvation. Loyal Russian workers and ethnic Germans needed to eat, so subject peoples like the Poles and Ukrainians needed to starve. Buttar’s book suggests the origin of this murderous ideology: the experiences of the First World War, particularly its last two years. Germans and Russians remembered the privations of the war as much as its glories, and certainly remembered that hunger had broken their old empires. War also tends to produce binary and zero-sum thinking: we are good and they are not; if we want something we must take it from them, or we will be weak and vulnerable. Most of us would like to think that bloody wars teach their survivors the value of peace. In the case of the Great War, the lesson the losers learned was the value of genocide.
October 14, 2023
This subject will never get old. The inept royal families of Europe effectively ordered their own demise and ushered in a new form of government that was good at one thing: killing its own citizens. This is the third book about the war in the Eastern front 1917 -1921. I did not read the two volumes which preceded this one, but this was a fascinating read and could stand on its own. You will read about the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian empire, emperor and king Karl sending envoys to the Triple Entente powers, secretly trying to broker a separate peace, and trying to save as much of his empire as possible. He did this after his predecessor Franz Joseph effectively started the war. I am always fascinated to read about these incompetent leaders and how they ended their way of life by making one bad decision after another. Karl’s actions were 3 years too late.
I always thought that the war in the East ended after the Armistice of December 1917, with the fall of Imperial Russia and the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Fighting continued into the 1920s all over Eastern Europe. Winston Churchill called these the Pigmy Wars. The highlight was the Red Army’s invasion of Poland, which led to an embarrassing defeat for the Soviets. Also of interest was that the Czechoslovakian’s were given a slice of ground that was comprised of German speaking people which became a bone of contention that helped to start WWII. Bad decisions on top of other bad decisions. This led to two World Wars, a holocaust, and the gulags.
I always thought that the war in the East ended after the Armistice of December 1917, with the fall of Imperial Russia and the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Fighting continued into the 1920s all over Eastern Europe. Winston Churchill called these the Pigmy Wars. The highlight was the Red Army’s invasion of Poland, which led to an embarrassing defeat for the Soviets. Also of interest was that the Czechoslovakian’s were given a slice of ground that was comprised of German speaking people which became a bone of contention that helped to start WWII. Bad decisions on top of other bad decisions. This led to two World Wars, a holocaust, and the gulags.
December 2, 2017
This is the final book of a four part series covering the Great War in the East. Unlike the other three, this one covers multiple years where the others only covered one year. Because of this, I feel this book is the weakest of the four and in many ways not as informative as the others. Too much happened during this period of time. I think the author would have been better off doing one more book in the series.
September 18, 2024
The concluding volume of Dr. Buttar's authoritative series on the Eastern Front of the First World War carries the narrative into the "pigmy wars" that continued to sputter on in eastern Europe after the fighting had ended in the west. There were civil wars in Russia, Finland, the Baltic states, fighting in Ukraine between White Russians, Bolsheviks, Ukrainian nationalists, Poles, and other local conflicts. Many of these are unfamiliar to western readers, so this book is a helpful resource to learn about how "the war to end all wars" actually ended. Or didn't. In any event, the entire series is beautifully-written and emaculately researched, and well worth the time one needs to take to read it.
February 2, 2022
An impressive work, somewhere in between accessible pop history and its esoteric academic counterpart. If you have little familiarity with WWI and particularly its Eastern Front, it's not the best place to start. It is heavy on people and on places that factor but little in most one-volume histories of the conflict. But it still manages to explain in detail the breakdown of the Eastern Front before and after the successive Russian revolutions and then again after the Armistice in the West. To most American and Western European readers, the Great War "ended" on 11/11/18, but of course armies fought and bled for years in Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic States, and of course in the former Ottoman Empire (the latter being beyond the scope of this work). If it had a flaw, aside from its density, it's that Buttar was very much in the weeds on some conflicts, relating tales of even small skirmishes, but relatively silent on other developments in the region at the end of the war. The fates of the Baltic States each receive their own chapter, but the post-war settlements of Romania, Bulgaria, rump Austria, and Hungary received just a couple paragraphs. Still, a fine work and one I'm glad I read.
December 11, 2022
Prit Buttar’s The Splintered Empires covers the Eastern front of WWI for the final couple of years of the war (1917-18) and then beyond into the chaos that the Russian Revolution and defeat of the central powers unleashed across Eastern Europe. It is an excellent and well written narrative covering the revolution itself as well as the military actions preceding peace and then the multipolar conflicts in the newly emerging states. This is the last of a four part series on the eastern front, but I have not read the preceding parts and I think that nonetheless it could easily be read as a standalone history about the (re)birth of the nations between Germany and Russia at the end of the war.
Being on the Eastern Front both in WWI and beyond does make it a book of two halves. Yes, they merge into each other but the action is very different; from the immense front lines from Baltic to Black sea to a much more confused anarchy with much smaller forces. For anyone thinking of WWI as static trenches think again. At this stage in the east it is a mobile war with big German advances. Later the smaller scale makes the conflict more akin to earlier 19th Century wars where manoeuvres and particular roads and railways are where everything is concentrated. This, combined with the multiple competing forces gives the later chapters a very different character.
Covering four years across a whole region this is quite a high level book and inevitably it sometimes leaves you wanting more. I am sure each of the ‘pygmy’ wars for independence in the Baltics, Finland, and Poland could have taken a book so perhaps felt a little perfunctory. And there are things that could have benefited a more detailed dive. For example, Buttar notes (p.273) that Germany made a mistake by taking so much land to occupy following peace with the soviets positing that with less troops occupying the east and so more divisions available the last great offensive of the war in the west could have been won. Yes, it is outside the scope of the book but could have done with a little more than the couple of lines it gets.
Thinking this a military history it was somewhat to my surprise this book focused on the political and diplomatic as much, if not more than the military. In some respects this is not a surprise, you would expect the treaty of Brest Litovsk – the peace between the Soviets and the Central powers – to be a core element. But that is not always the case for example a whole chapter (chapt 4) is devoted to Austrian peace feelers and the Sixtus affair which could well have been considered outside the scope of this work. Conversely while they are there the organisation of armies, their training, tactics and logistics that are usually a part of military history books is very much sidelined. This perhaps benefits the narrative for the casual reader.
When it comes to military history I always gripe, or occasionally praise, the maps. This has a fair few (so not nearly as bad as many!) but with such a wide scope to cover it is not surprising there are bits of the action that are not represented. For example, there is a chapter on the Romanians at the southern end of the front, but no map. But at least for many of the smaller post-war actions Buttar has made sure that the maps for the most part include the places he is mentioning.
A solid book providing a good overview of a neglected part of world war I. Well worthwhile as an introduction to the end of the war and its’ immediate consequences in the east
Being on the Eastern Front both in WWI and beyond does make it a book of two halves. Yes, they merge into each other but the action is very different; from the immense front lines from Baltic to Black sea to a much more confused anarchy with much smaller forces. For anyone thinking of WWI as static trenches think again. At this stage in the east it is a mobile war with big German advances. Later the smaller scale makes the conflict more akin to earlier 19th Century wars where manoeuvres and particular roads and railways are where everything is concentrated. This, combined with the multiple competing forces gives the later chapters a very different character.
Covering four years across a whole region this is quite a high level book and inevitably it sometimes leaves you wanting more. I am sure each of the ‘pygmy’ wars for independence in the Baltics, Finland, and Poland could have taken a book so perhaps felt a little perfunctory. And there are things that could have benefited a more detailed dive. For example, Buttar notes (p.273) that Germany made a mistake by taking so much land to occupy following peace with the soviets positing that with less troops occupying the east and so more divisions available the last great offensive of the war in the west could have been won. Yes, it is outside the scope of the book but could have done with a little more than the couple of lines it gets.
Thinking this a military history it was somewhat to my surprise this book focused on the political and diplomatic as much, if not more than the military. In some respects this is not a surprise, you would expect the treaty of Brest Litovsk – the peace between the Soviets and the Central powers – to be a core element. But that is not always the case for example a whole chapter (chapt 4) is devoted to Austrian peace feelers and the Sixtus affair which could well have been considered outside the scope of this work. Conversely while they are there the organisation of armies, their training, tactics and logistics that are usually a part of military history books is very much sidelined. This perhaps benefits the narrative for the casual reader.
When it comes to military history I always gripe, or occasionally praise, the maps. This has a fair few (so not nearly as bad as many!) but with such a wide scope to cover it is not surprising there are bits of the action that are not represented. For example, there is a chapter on the Romanians at the southern end of the front, but no map. But at least for many of the smaller post-war actions Buttar has made sure that the maps for the most part include the places he is mentioning.
A solid book providing a good overview of a neglected part of world war I. Well worthwhile as an introduction to the end of the war and its’ immediate consequences in the east
August 1, 2018
This fourth volume brings to a close Prit Buttar's magisterial quadrilogy on the Eastern Front during the Great War. Like the preceding volumes, this one begins where the prior volume left off.
Despite the glowing success against the Hapsburg K.u.K., the Russian Army had utterly shot it's bolt during the Brusilov Offensive, and had seen but slight success against German formations. As was all too often the case, jealousy against Brusilov conspired to rob him of his grand success as commanders who sneered at his revolutionary methods resolved to win victories in a more traditional manner. This only resulted in yet more beatings at the hands of the Germans.
By the beginning of 1917, everywhere on the Eastern Front, despite a considerable advance in the south thanks to Brusilov, the Russian forces were on the verge of collapse. Already revolutionary fervor was gripping the Army, and the Germans actually let them largely alone, waiting for the cancer of revolution to spread before striking a weakened foe.
Buttar goes into detail the beginnings and course of the Russian Revolution, the murder of Rasputin and the Czar and his family, and the bloody, chaotic street fighting in Petrograd. He also charts the rise to power of the Bolsheviks and of Lenin, and the blood fueled savagery that they would unleash upon Russia and later a large portion of the globe.
While this volume is lighter on military details, the focus being the political turmoil in the East, the author covers expertly all of the occurrences between the start of 1917, through to the end of the Soviet-Polish War of 1920.
He discusses the collapse of the Honzollern dynasty in Germany and that of the Hapsburgs, as well as the Communist intentions to reclaim the former frontiers of the Russian Empire by force of arms.
What was most fascinating was the narration of the often entirely ignored wars for independence in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Finnish Civil War, and the actions of the German Freikorps in the Baltic states both against the Communists, as well as against the states seeking independence from their more powerful neighbors. He even makes mention of what was essentially a brief civil war in Germany between nationalists and Communists that was brutally suppressed by German veterans of the Great War. In fact, he details how the Germans even as early as 1919 were not abiding by the clauses of Versailles, and the western Allies, unwilling to go to war and also fearful of Communism spreading, looked the other way as Germany waged a technically illegal war in the Baltic to stamp out Communism.
This was made easier by the heinous practices of the Red Army and the Communist revolutionaries who were little more than barbaric, murderous savages who slaughtered entire communities and had an especial hatred for the Church. While the actions of those who drove them away was little better, with a White Terror often following a Red Terror, the author made sure to dispell some of the more laughable myths of modern thought regarding the methods of Real Communism.
Easily, however, the most remarkable tale in the book is the final chapter detailing the Polish War for Independence and the success of the infant Polish Army in winning a stunning success against the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw.
One cannot help but wonder, however, if had Germany not overextended itself following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, if possibly the beast of Communism might not have been easier contained were the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires not in a state of rigor mortis. Then again, the stresses of the war itself fatally weakened all three empires (Russian included), and this was not helped by Woodrow Wilson's myopic and naive notion of self determination as the source of peace and stability in Europe.
In truth, Wilson's Fourteen Points largely led to the chaos in Eastern Europe post 1918, and this chaos helped with the spawning of a new beast, equally as terrible as that of the international socialism of the Soviet state: the National Socialists of Germany. In fact, as the author points out, WW1 was not fully resolved until the end of WW2.
A magnificent series, easily the best ever written on the Eastern Front in WW1. Having finished this it is my fervent hope that Prit Buttar will, at some point, turn his eye to the Russian Civil War, to offer up an equally excellent military and political history of that conflict.
Highly recommended.
Despite the glowing success against the Hapsburg K.u.K., the Russian Army had utterly shot it's bolt during the Brusilov Offensive, and had seen but slight success against German formations. As was all too often the case, jealousy against Brusilov conspired to rob him of his grand success as commanders who sneered at his revolutionary methods resolved to win victories in a more traditional manner. This only resulted in yet more beatings at the hands of the Germans.
By the beginning of 1917, everywhere on the Eastern Front, despite a considerable advance in the south thanks to Brusilov, the Russian forces were on the verge of collapse. Already revolutionary fervor was gripping the Army, and the Germans actually let them largely alone, waiting for the cancer of revolution to spread before striking a weakened foe.
Buttar goes into detail the beginnings and course of the Russian Revolution, the murder of Rasputin and the Czar and his family, and the bloody, chaotic street fighting in Petrograd. He also charts the rise to power of the Bolsheviks and of Lenin, and the blood fueled savagery that they would unleash upon Russia and later a large portion of the globe.
While this volume is lighter on military details, the focus being the political turmoil in the East, the author covers expertly all of the occurrences between the start of 1917, through to the end of the Soviet-Polish War of 1920.
He discusses the collapse of the Honzollern dynasty in Germany and that of the Hapsburgs, as well as the Communist intentions to reclaim the former frontiers of the Russian Empire by force of arms.
What was most fascinating was the narration of the often entirely ignored wars for independence in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Finnish Civil War, and the actions of the German Freikorps in the Baltic states both against the Communists, as well as against the states seeking independence from their more powerful neighbors. He even makes mention of what was essentially a brief civil war in Germany between nationalists and Communists that was brutally suppressed by German veterans of the Great War. In fact, he details how the Germans even as early as 1919 were not abiding by the clauses of Versailles, and the western Allies, unwilling to go to war and also fearful of Communism spreading, looked the other way as Germany waged a technically illegal war in the Baltic to stamp out Communism.
This was made easier by the heinous practices of the Red Army and the Communist revolutionaries who were little more than barbaric, murderous savages who slaughtered entire communities and had an especial hatred for the Church. While the actions of those who drove them away was little better, with a White Terror often following a Red Terror, the author made sure to dispell some of the more laughable myths of modern thought regarding the methods of Real Communism.
Easily, however, the most remarkable tale in the book is the final chapter detailing the Polish War for Independence and the success of the infant Polish Army in winning a stunning success against the Red Army at the Battle of Warsaw.
One cannot help but wonder, however, if had Germany not overextended itself following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, if possibly the beast of Communism might not have been easier contained were the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires not in a state of rigor mortis. Then again, the stresses of the war itself fatally weakened all three empires (Russian included), and this was not helped by Woodrow Wilson's myopic and naive notion of self determination as the source of peace and stability in Europe.
In truth, Wilson's Fourteen Points largely led to the chaos in Eastern Europe post 1918, and this chaos helped with the spawning of a new beast, equally as terrible as that of the international socialism of the Soviet state: the National Socialists of Germany. In fact, as the author points out, WW1 was not fully resolved until the end of WW2.
A magnificent series, easily the best ever written on the Eastern Front in WW1. Having finished this it is my fervent hope that Prit Buttar will, at some point, turn his eye to the Russian Civil War, to offer up an equally excellent military and political history of that conflict.
Highly recommended.
October 9, 2019
Following on from the 3rd book in the series, 'Russia's Last Gasp' which outlined the Brusilov offensive of 1917, 'The Splintered Empires' delves into the closing stages of the war on the Eastern Front and the immediate interwar aftermath of the consequences of the overthrow of the Tzar and the defeat of the Central Powers by the allies. Like his previous books, the author does a great job outlining the campaigns in detail and adding colour to his accounts with the inclusion of memoirs and first hand accounts. This style serves to breath life into the pages, as the reader continues to be given insights into the thoughts of contemporary characters who make their appearance in their 4th book. It is quite interesting experiencing the contrast between the positivity and fervour for war evident in the first book, to the defeatist and doomed tone of the same individuals in this book. Check it out if you've been curious about the events and personalities of the First World War Eastern Front.
March 12, 2018
This book is obviously a labor of love, and well documented.
Splintered Empires shows how the three "eastern" empires shared a similar history as World War One came to an end. Buttar shows the interlocking events of the Eastern Front and how the region reacted to the collapse of the three regional powers. He also shows the "war beyond the war" and how their collapse contributed to the rise of new local powers (i.e. the Baltic states and Finland).
Much attention is paid to Russia since its collapse was the most dramatic and far reaching. Buttar goes into great depth into this, and also to the fallout in the region after Imperial Germany fell apart. This provides insight into the subsequent idea of Eastern Europe as a place of "race and space" used by the Nazis for their proposed expansion.
Splintered Empires shows how the three "eastern" empires shared a similar history as World War One came to an end. Buttar shows the interlocking events of the Eastern Front and how the region reacted to the collapse of the three regional powers. He also shows the "war beyond the war" and how their collapse contributed to the rise of new local powers (i.e. the Baltic states and Finland).
Much attention is paid to Russia since its collapse was the most dramatic and far reaching. Buttar goes into great depth into this, and also to the fallout in the region after Imperial Germany fell apart. This provides insight into the subsequent idea of Eastern Europe as a place of "race and space" used by the Nazis for their proposed expansion.
March 10, 2021
A solid single volume on the tumultuous political disintegration that enveloped much of Eastern Europe after 1917. The former great empires of Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary collapsed under the strain of four years of unceasing wars, and in their wake, a power vacuum emerged. It was one filled by competing ideological goals, nationalistic ambitions, and shattered dreams of Empire. A great, if sadly brief at times, look at the Baltic States, German, Austria Hungary, Russia and Poland - leaving poor Ukraine the odd man out. A excellent read and a great conclusion to a series on the Eastern Front of the Great War.
February 19, 2019
This book covers an time and area little written of in the West, the political and military history of the Eastern Front after the Armistice was signed in the West. Perhaps the post Western Armistice situation in Latvia best exemplifies the tangled webs those mortals wove. Latvia had been the most industrialized part of the Czar’s empire and was thus ripe for Bolshevik recruitment, indeed the Latvian Riflemen were amongst the most trusted of the early post-Czarist Russian governments’ troops. But where there were reds so to were there Whites – anti-Bolshevik Russians who helped fight the Reds but, like the Reds, considered Latvia a Russian possession and thus were regarded with suspicion by the Latvian nationalists.
The Germans were in control after Russia surrendered and tried to establish a pro-German regime headed by Baltic Germans, whose families had been there of over 800 years. While they were seeking German and Swedish support, non-communist Latvian nationalists formed their own government but had little to oppose the Russian and Latvian Communist troops invading from Russia.
So a German Landeswehr came into being, sponsored by the Baltic Germans. With the questionable agreement of the nationalist government, they recruited German troops with the promise of citizenship and land at the end of hostilities. Meanwhile, the Latvian Bolsheviks duly proclaimed a Latvian Socialist Republic and to complicate matters further, Estonian troops were also involved, at first fighting alongside the Germans and nationalists, but later fighting the Germans.
The British and French navies were there, blockading and shelling German coastal positions. But they were conflicted - while they had no desire to see the establishment of an eastern German Empire, they recognized the Germans were the key to preventing further Bolshevik successes. So although they generally supported the nationalists against the Germans, somehow in the summer of 1919, Col. Harold Alexander (Field Marshall in WWII) ended up leading the remnants of Landeswehr troops along with Latvian and Polish (?!) troops to drive Bolsheviks from Eastern Latvia!
Confused? Yeah, I too. Suffice it to say it was a sad, swirling mess with lots of people killed, both soldiers as well as civilians who were regarded as sympathizers to whichever force had just been driven out of their town. At the end of it all, Latvia established independence (for a brief period) at the cost of perhaps a quarter of its population killed or driven into exile.
I think it is well worth reading both for background on the Baltic states, as well as a glimpse into the almost unintelligible, ever changing political situation that arose with the disintegration of the Czarist and Imperial German Empires.
The Germans were in control after Russia surrendered and tried to establish a pro-German regime headed by Baltic Germans, whose families had been there of over 800 years. While they were seeking German and Swedish support, non-communist Latvian nationalists formed their own government but had little to oppose the Russian and Latvian Communist troops invading from Russia.
So a German Landeswehr came into being, sponsored by the Baltic Germans. With the questionable agreement of the nationalist government, they recruited German troops with the promise of citizenship and land at the end of hostilities. Meanwhile, the Latvian Bolsheviks duly proclaimed a Latvian Socialist Republic and to complicate matters further, Estonian troops were also involved, at first fighting alongside the Germans and nationalists, but later fighting the Germans.
The British and French navies were there, blockading and shelling German coastal positions. But they were conflicted - while they had no desire to see the establishment of an eastern German Empire, they recognized the Germans were the key to preventing further Bolshevik successes. So although they generally supported the nationalists against the Germans, somehow in the summer of 1919, Col. Harold Alexander (Field Marshall in WWII) ended up leading the remnants of Landeswehr troops along with Latvian and Polish (?!) troops to drive Bolsheviks from Eastern Latvia!
Confused? Yeah, I too. Suffice it to say it was a sad, swirling mess with lots of people killed, both soldiers as well as civilians who were regarded as sympathizers to whichever force had just been driven out of their town. At the end of it all, Latvia established independence (for a brief period) at the cost of perhaps a quarter of its population killed or driven into exile.
I think it is well worth reading both for background on the Baltic states, as well as a glimpse into the almost unintelligible, ever changing political situation that arose with the disintegration of the Czarist and Imperial German Empires.
November 12, 2024
Reviewing this last book is somewhat difficult for me. I appreciated it, and a lot. The take however it’s slightly different from the previous three books. Covering the last months of the war in the east means explaining a lot of the things that happened in Russia, and how in the meantime the other Powers were reacting to the prospect of the peace on the Eastern Front. The author spends a great deal of time, with the same zeal shown in the previous volumes, to describe what was going on. As a reader, I found that this first part of the book successfully closes the arcs started with the first volume. The author has kept a good coherence throughout the entire 4 volume essay about the war.
The little problem, to me, is the narrative concerning the “Pygmy wars”, which span the last ~30% of the book. In describing these small conflicts, fundamental events in the shaping of the map of Eastern Europe, I found the narrative to be in some cases overstretched and in some other cases too short. The lack of any detailed map showing the military side of these skirmishes makes the reading even more difficult. Thus, where the narrative is short the reader might follow the text with no apparent difficulty; when the chapter is quite long - an example is the Latvian War of Independence - the reading starts to falter, due to what I deem is a clear lack of focus and what objectively is a lack of useful military maps.
The Pygmy wars had to be told, in full. I am happy the authors treated them, for their historical meaning and for the impact on what happened less than 20 years later. I would have preferred a less confusing treatment, though. Perhaps this final section of the book deserved an independent treatment, under the form of a book, entirely separated from this title.
The little problem, to me, is the narrative concerning the “Pygmy wars”, which span the last ~30% of the book. In describing these small conflicts, fundamental events in the shaping of the map of Eastern Europe, I found the narrative to be in some cases overstretched and in some other cases too short. The lack of any detailed map showing the military side of these skirmishes makes the reading even more difficult. Thus, where the narrative is short the reader might follow the text with no apparent difficulty; when the chapter is quite long - an example is the Latvian War of Independence - the reading starts to falter, due to what I deem is a clear lack of focus and what objectively is a lack of useful military maps.
The Pygmy wars had to be told, in full. I am happy the authors treated them, for their historical meaning and for the impact on what happened less than 20 years later. I would have preferred a less confusing treatment, though. Perhaps this final section of the book deserved an independent treatment, under the form of a book, entirely separated from this title.
December 5, 2018
This book is a fitting end to the author's tetralogy on the eastern front during World War I. Once again, quite a few of his conversions from miles to kilometers are incorrect but they seem to be fewer than in the past and the conversion errors were smaller. Several maps were provided although there are a few differences between the way the text spells names and the way the maps do. There were a few minor and inconsequential errors in the text as well.
I was surprised the book went into details about several of the events that occurred after the war ended such as the various conflicts in Latvia, Estonia, Poland, aspects of the Russian Civil War, etc.
I did learn a lot from the book, especially details behind multiple military campaigns. I would have liked more coverage about the combat in the Balkans. The situation with Romania is covered but not Bulgaria nor the French and British efforts in the region.
Inevitably, but understandably, a great deal of the book deals with the political aspects of the conflict.
Overall, I found the title to be interesting reading.
I was surprised the book went into details about several of the events that occurred after the war ended such as the various conflicts in Latvia, Estonia, Poland, aspects of the Russian Civil War, etc.
I did learn a lot from the book, especially details behind multiple military campaigns. I would have liked more coverage about the combat in the Balkans. The situation with Romania is covered but not Bulgaria nor the French and British efforts in the region.
Inevitably, but understandably, a great deal of the book deals with the political aspects of the conflict.
Overall, I found the title to be interesting reading.
April 8, 2020
The fourth and final series of the Eastern Front in WWI. This volume covers the collapse of Russia, Germany, and Austria Hungary, so this gets more involved in political points and less on strict military. For me the political parts were most interesting. However, the volume covers some military activities that I had never heard about including naval battles in the Baltic Sea and amphibious operations. The book continues on from the 1918 Armistice because fighting was still raging in East Europe. Both the Germans and Russians were trying to get central Europe as a sphere of influence and those countries resisted. Meanwhile, the Russians had their hands full dealing with their own civil war and trying to influence the Baltics and Poland. Who knows if the White Russians had not opposed independence for Poland and the Baltic states, they may have gained enough to topple the Bolsheviks. All in all, a fascinating if little told part of history.
June 8, 2019
A well-researched and insightful history of the Russian civil war.
Buttar does a great job laying out the origins and background, the course of the revolution, and how the war with the Central Powers affected the subsequent civil war. His coverage of the German, Habsburg and Russian empires’ collapse is good, as is his exploration of how these events led to so many different independence movements and new nations, and of German foreign policy and war aims in eastern Europe.
The maps are good. There could have been some more coverage of Polish politics, and some of the material feels a little crammed in or overstuffed, like Buttar had trouble determining what to include or emphasize.
An engaging, well-written work.
Buttar does a great job laying out the origins and background, the course of the revolution, and how the war with the Central Powers affected the subsequent civil war. His coverage of the German, Habsburg and Russian empires’ collapse is good, as is his exploration of how these events led to so many different independence movements and new nations, and of German foreign policy and war aims in eastern Europe.
The maps are good. There could have been some more coverage of Polish politics, and some of the material feels a little crammed in or overstuffed, like Buttar had trouble determining what to include or emphasize.
An engaging, well-written work.
February 8, 2020
Decent overview of the, to put it mildly, the messy situation of the eastern European frontiers at the end of the first world war and its following years to when the borders in that region were settled.I did have a few gripes and nitpicks, I didn't feel Ukraine (even if Ukraine didn't last long before being reabsorbed by the Soviet union) got enough attention and the off-hand comments about Italian satisfaction to its demands in WW1 were wrong, yes Italy did get some territorial compensations like in the Tyrol but not to the levels they demanded which created the 'Vittoria mutliata' conditions which helped pave way for Mussolini's fascism.
June 17, 2020
This is the fourth and final book in the author's series about the Eastern Front in the First World War. While each of the first three covered, basically, a year each, this one covers three, 1918 through 1920.
Perhaps the author had to step a little further back from the details than in previous books, and stick to a larger picture; if so, I found the book easier to read, and was less likely to get lost in the details. It also helps that the second half of the book deals with one new state after another, which breaks the action down into more easily comprehended chunks. In any case, I found this to be the best of the four books.
Perhaps the author had to step a little further back from the details than in previous books, and stick to a larger picture; if so, I found the book easier to read, and was less likely to get lost in the details. It also helps that the second half of the book deals with one new state after another, which breaks the action down into more easily comprehended chunks. In any case, I found this to be the best of the four books.
November 6, 2025
Very detailed analysis of the fighting on the Eastern Front in World War 1. Blow by blow with lots of maps. Quite easy to follow but well annotated and includes lots of quotes from the people involved (famous and not famous). This is the fourth and last volume of a series. Can be read as part of the series or as a stand-alone book as the author does not assume prior knowledge of earlier volumes.
March 31, 2020
Eastern Front Reference
This is a very good read about the final period on the Eastern Front during The Great War and more......wonderful history regarding Pygmy wars, which was a new and excitement aspect not covered as much in other books I have read on The Great War. I will certainly pick up the rest of the series.
This is a very good read about the final period on the Eastern Front during The Great War and more......wonderful history regarding Pygmy wars, which was a new and excitement aspect not covered as much in other books I have read on The Great War. I will certainly pick up the rest of the series.
July 28, 2024
This can be read without starting with the previous volumes. Probably the best review of the Eastern Front of WWI. A fact laden review of late and post war period in Central Europe. It goes right up the great post-war conflicts such as the Finnish and Russian Civil wars. Sets up the Czechoslovak Legion's advance through Siberia.
April 24, 2018
Great finish to a great series.
Interested in the eastern front during WWI? This is the final book in a series detailing the war on the eastern front. The book is highly researched and well written.
Interested in the eastern front during WWI? This is the final book in a series detailing the war on the eastern front. The book is highly researched and well written.
February 6, 2020
This covers a lot of material that isn't as common in World War I - the continuing conflict in the Baltic States and Finland after World War I, the collapse of the Provisional Government, and Germany's war aims in the East. That, alone, for me is worth the price of admission.
May 4, 2020
Excellent and well-researched. I wish there would have been more about the Russian civil war. I wasn't expecting so much of a recap of the Russian Revolution.
August 29, 2023
Very informative. I was unaware of all the small conflicts that took place at the end of the war.
October 3, 2023
Excellent book, I really enjoyed the narrative and account of the breakup of the three empires and the states that replaced then,
June 28, 2024
3.5/5
Audiobook is good at increased speeds.
Educational, not for the faint of heart.
Audiobook is good at increased speeds.
Educational, not for the faint of heart.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2024
Probably the hardest one in the series to get into, but mainly just because of how much things had fallen apart into mini fights by this point in the war.
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