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Russia

Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921

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Russia

By: Antony Beevor
Narrated by: Rob Heaps
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About this listen

 'A masterpiece of history'
DAILY TELEGRAPH

Between 1917 and 1921 a devastating struggle took place in Russia following the collapse of the Tsarist empire. Many regard this savage civil war as the most influential event of the modern era. An incompatible White alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky's Red Army and Lenin's single-minded Communist dictatorship. Terror begat terror, which in turn led to even greater cruelty with man's inhumanity to man, woman and child. The struggle became a world war by proxy as Churchill deployed weaponry and troops from the British empire, while armed forces from the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Poland and Czechoslovakia played rival parts.

Using the most up to date scholarship and archival research, Antony Beevor, author of the acclaimed international bestseller Stalingrad, assembles the complete picture in a gripping narrative that conveys the conflict through the eyes of everyone from the worker on the streets of Petrograd to the cavalry officer on the battlefield and the woman doctor in an improvised hospital. Europe Military Russia War Imperialism Stalin Winston Churchill Civil War Red Army British Empire

Critic Reviews

A magnificent piece of work - as superbly researched and original as Stalingrad, and compellingly told by a historian at the top of his powers. So much of the tragic story of Russia and the bloodlands of Eastern Europe over the past century make sense after reading Antony Beevor's epic and often shocking tale of revolution, civil war, oppression, starvation, brutality and shifting borders; if anyone needs to know why history matters, this book has the answers. Stunning.
Brilliant and utterly readable.
In Stalingrad, Berlin and The Second World War, Antony Beevor transformed military history by evoking the experiences of those who fought and suffered in some the greatest wars of the twentieth century. Now he has given us what may be his most brilliant book to date - a masterpiece of historical imagination, in which the tragedy and horror of this colossal struggle is recaptured, in its impact on everyday life as well as its military dimensions, as never before. This is a great book, whose depiction of savage inhumanity speaks powerfully to our present condition.
In this brilliant marshalling of a notoriously complex history, Antony Beevor opens up a magisterial canvas of terror and tragedy.
A completely riveting account of how the Russian Revolution, which started with such high hopes and idealism, degenerated into a tangle of civil conflicts marked by hideous cruelty on all sides. Antony Beevor brings his great gifts for narrative and his deep interest in the people who both make history and suffer it to illuminate that crucial period whose consequences we are still living with today.
Beevor, best known for his formidable book Stalingrad, commands authority as a historian because his research is comprehensive and his conclusions free of political agenda. He's a skilled writer, but his prose is not what makes his books special. Rather, it's the confidence that his authority conveys - one senses that he knows his subject as well as anyone. He allows his mountain of evidence to speak for itself, simply charting the course of this horrible war, exposing its boundless cruelty. This is easily the most horrifying war story I've ever read. One wonders how Russia could ever contain so much suffering. (Gerard DeGroot)
Antony Beevor's Russia is a masterpiece of history - and a harrowing lesson for today... This is a hugely complex story, and Beevor tells it supremely well. The book is groundbreaking in its use of original evidence from many archives; it adds new facts, tests old claims and demolishes myths on both sides. It is impressively objective.. (Noel Malcolm)
Beevor has provided an illuminating account of one of the darkest, and most misunderstood, periods of 20th-century history. It should be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the origins of Soviet Russia. (Jonathan Eaton)
All stars
Most relevant
Amazingly detailed research. Structuren and delivered in a highly digestible format. Brilliantly narrated in a crisp clear voice

wow!

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As always Beevor delivers with a stark reminder of Russian history. Well read and a must read

Brutal Reminder

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Beevor meticulously chronicles the vast panoply of the hugely destructive war(s) between Russians and dozens of smaller nations, nationalities and ethnicities. Although more of a political than military history it would have nonetheless benefited from greater detail of the major decisive battles, particularly in the latter half of the civil war. Some statistics to flesh out the scale of losses would have helped more than relentless descriptions of barbarity that became almost repetitive by the final chapters. But these are minor quibbles when viewing the enormous scope of the truly awful conflict that Beevor describes. The huge array of characters on all sides (there were often more than just Whites and Reds!) is brought together and narrated, often by their own writing in a compelling way not previously seen in histories of this now remote but crucially important period of modern history.

A Chronicle of Barbarity

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The research alone on this book is fantastic. I didn't know much at all about this chapter of history and I'm glad I listened to this book where I now feel I have a strong overview.

Brutal civil war

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The audible cordon suffers from a lack of maps and ability to see the many names of the vast array of characters written down so can become confusing and hard to recall as the book progresses

But in all other respects this is a tremendous history of a less well known period Post the Russian revolution of 1917 of the reds and whites

Get me a map !

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