The End of Tsarist Russia
The March to World War I and Revolution
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
An Economist Best Book of the Year
A Financial Times Best Book of the Year
Winner of the the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize
Finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize
An Amazon Best Book of the Month (History)
One of the world’s leading scholars offers a fresh interpretation of the linked origins of World War I and the Russian Revolution
"Lieven has a double gift: first, for harvesting details to convey the essence of an era and, second, for finding new, startling, and clarifying elements in familiar stories. This is history with a heartbeat, and it could not be more engrossing."—Foreign Affairs
World War I and the Russian Revolution together shaped the twentieth century in profound ways. In The End of Tsarist Russia, acclaimed scholar Dominic Lieven connects for the first time the two events, providing both a history of the First World War’s origins from a Russian perspective and an international history of why the revolution happened.
Based on exhaustive work in seven Russian archives as well as many non-Russian sources, Dominic Lieven’s work is about far more than just Russia. By placing the crisis of empire at its core, Lieven links World War I to the sweep of twentieth-century global history. He shows how contemporary hot issues such as the struggle for Ukraine were already crucial elements in the run-up to 1914.
By incorporating into his book new approaches and comparisons, Lieven tells the story of war and revolution in a way that is truly original and thought-provoking.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Using Russian and Soviet archives only recently opened to Western historians, Lieven (Russia Against Napoleon) constructs a Russian history of the years leading up to WWI and the Russian Revolution, arguing that, contrary to Western European sensibilities, WWI was primarily a conflict between two looming Eastern hegemons: Russia and Germany. Moving from broader geopolitical analysis and historical trends all the way down to a "worm's-eye view" of history that focuses on the actions of a small cadre of influential decision makers in July and August 1914, Lieven charts Russia's burgeoning "Second World" imperialism a rise inevitably complicated by modernity and mass politics. Already humiliated by losing the Russo-Japanese War (1904 1905) and weakened by the 1905 revolution, Russia was ill-prepared for the demands of the 20th century. Lieven has a gift for illuminating the intricacies and complexities of tsarist Russia, but in doing so, he assumes a familiarity with Russian history likely beyond the casual reader, and his dry prose does little to support or engage novices. Nonetheless, Lieven's uniquely Russian take on these decisive years stands as a significant work of scholarship. Maps & illus.
