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Russia

Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921

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Russia

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

“Riveting . . . There is a wealth of new information here that adds considerable texture and nuance to his story and helps to set Russia apart from previous works.”—The Wall Street Journal

An epic new account of the conflict that reshaped Eastern Europe and set the stage for the rest of the twentieth century.


Between 1917 and 1921 a devastating struggle took place in Russia following the collapse of the Tsarist empire. The doomed White alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky’s Red Army and the single-minded Communist dictatorship under Lenin. In the savage civil war that followed, terror begat terror, which in turn led to ever 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 contingents 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 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 doctor in an improvised hospital.

©2022 Antony Beevor (P)2022 Penguin Audio
Russia Wars & Conflicts Imperialism Military Stalin United States Winston Churchill Red Army Hungary Interwar Period English Civil War
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What the critics say

"In this brilliant marshalling of a notoriously complex history, Antony Beevor opens up a magisterial canvas of terror and tragedy." (Colin Thubron, author of Shadow of the Silk Road and The Amur River: Between Russia and China)

"Beevor 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." (John Gray, author of Straw Dogs)

“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.” (Margaret MacMillan, author of War: How Conflict Shaped Us and The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914)

What listeners say about Russia

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An excellent read.

The author has produced a meticulously researched and detailed description of the 1917 and its’ bloody aftermath. Wonderfully narrated, it is worth the time to listen to this tome with its’ short but insightful conclusion that ends the book.

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Russia

Lots of historical facts about the Bolshevik revolution and the cruelty of the civil war.
Both sides conducted the war as a personal revenge. Astonished number of victims among the civil population.

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Not up to Beevor standards

What I've always loved about Beevor's style is the way he can deftly maneuver between the 10000 foot view and the intensely personal. Russia is missing those emotional hooks that gripped me in his previous works. The new narrator didn't help. Still informative, but not nearly as well written as The Second World War, Stalingrad, or The Fall of Berlin.

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Could have been more strategic

Although it’s interesting to hear (some) of the detailed nitty gritty and this history does give historical perspective to the current conflict, I would have liked a more strategic take on the conflict and how other countries and leaders were involved in this historic conflict.

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