From Publishers Weekly
Based on letters, diaries, interviews and official papers, this is an account by two British journalists of the Allied intervention in Russia that began as a desperate attempt to bolster Russian resistance to the Germans and later became an anti-Bolshevik crusade. Isolated sections of the book are interestingthe ordeals of individual soldiers, the exploits of secret agents, the mutiny of British units, the Royal Air Force's bombing of Tsaritsyn (later called Stalingrad)but the authors ultimately fail to find shape and coherence in the prevailing chaos. One fact may serve to illustrate the enormity of the problem they were unable to solve: at one time during the period of intervention there were some 30 governments functioning on Russian soil. If the book has an overall theme, it is the persistent lack of an Allied policy. (American troops, peripherally involved, never understood their mission.) Photos.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The Allied intervention in Russia was complex, confusing, and without clear strategic direction. This is mirrored in the authors' problems in synthesizing personal narratives, Russian revisionist accounts, and offical history into a coherent account. Dobson and Miller, British writers on foreign affairs, concentrate almost entirely on the British role, but do bring to light some noteworthy sources. They assert, with some justice, that the various acts of intervention are the roots of the superpower conflict today. There is interesting material on the spies Reilly and Lockhart, but very little on Turkish, American, or Japanese activities. The writing tends toward that of journalistic expose. Despite defects in style and focus, however, most Russian history collections will want this. Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr., Fort Monroe, Va.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
