Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921

My history textbooks and English articles had always referred to the Russian Revolution and Civil War as a well-understood monolith of an event, but they never treated the events with any more detail. “The Russian Revolution caused Russia to exit World War I, and then they descended into a Civil War, and then Stalin!” I'm glad that Beevor wrote this astounding book, since it's part of a departure from the current oversight of the Anglophone histories.

Beevor elucidates the unimaginable scale of the terror and destruction brought about by the Civil War. Every person in every town had something to fear. The Cheka, unbelievably sadistic torture, “food detachments,” starvation, hypothermia, typhus, cholera, reprisals by retreating armies, looting by advancing armies, pogroms. Reading from the vantage point of a well-off American, I just can't comprehend the total suffering of the population. It's almost otherworldly. It's insane. It happened, and it's hard to grasp.

Beevor mostly focuses on the experience of the Whites. Now, although some may denounce him as biased or revisionist, the Whites' is a story too often overlooked. Beevor is primarily a military historian, but he examines the character of the White leadership in satisfying detail. In fact, he identifies it as perhaps the primary reason why the Whites lost the Civil War.

If you want to learn more about the Russian Revolution and Civil War, I can confidently say that you can look no further!