Customer Reviews

Red Victory: A History Of The Russian Civil War, 1918-1921

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It is rare to find a book on any civil war that is both factual and objective. _Red Victory_ is one of the rare exceptions. It is remarkably unbiased, and tells the stories of both the "Reds" and the "Whites" without taking sides. It also succeeds in presenting the facts of the fast-moving and unconventional Russian Civil War in a format that is easy to read. It covers not only the civil war but the early years of Communist government, as well. Those who want to dig deeper into the various aspects of the conflict will find the abundant footnotes and bibliography to be of great value.

The author's greatest achievement is his excellent analysis of why the Reds ultimately prevailed. Unlike those revisionist authors who claim that the Bolsheviks' military triumph was inevitable, W. Bruce Lincoln shows how the Reds were able to make the most of their opportunities and consolidate their gains while the Whites squandered many of their considerable advantages. Neither enjoyed widespread popular support. Both sides were also guilty of atrocities, as the conditions of post-World War 1 Russia left little room between repression or anarchy. The difference is that the Communists combined repression with reform, and were able to win the reluctant support (or at least toleration) of much of the populace. The Whites, by contrast, even when initially welcomed as liberators, alienated many with their reactionary policies (which included restoring the estates of the hated landowners). Given a choice between "Red Terror" and the Old Order, most Russians opted to take their chances with the former.

My only disappointment was the lack of detailed information on the military campaigns of the war. However, this book is much better than _Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime_, by Richard Pipes, which is the only other single-volume work widely available on the topic.

This book provides an excellent portrayal of the social, political, economic and military events in the parts of Russia that were at least nominally controlled by the Bolsheviks during the successive stages of the Russian Civil War. This extensive description and discussion not only illuminates the problems confronted and solved by Lenin and Trotsky, but provides a basis for understanding the later course of events in the Soviet Union.

I have two criticisms. First, the book does not describe nearly as well the evolution, decisions and events of the 20-odd major anti-Bolshevik groups (including army units from 14 foreign countries, and about a dozen governments and/or armies set up by anti-Bolshevik Russians between 1918 and 1922.) This lack is reflected in the bibliography, which omits various important sources on the anti-Bolshevik movements.

Second, a criticism of the publisher. Like most authors' manuscripts, this one could have benefited from a heavy editorial blue pencil. If somebody as skillful and determined as (say) Katherine White had been Lincoln's editor, the book would have wound up covering all the same material more clearly in perhaps 2/3 as many words, would have eliminated a number of ambiguities and seeming inconsistencies (and a couple of minor errors of fact), and would have contained a far more useful index.

Lincoln very engagingly takes the reader into the private memoirs of hundreds of principal characters, into the thinking of Lenin and Trotsky and Stalin, and into the changing and complex fabric of Russian life during its Civil War. Every page breathes the idea "revolution" as the cure-all in the Reds' minds for every ill in Russian society, while the Whites seem more bent on democracy or a dictatorship (like the tsarist days), so long as there was some kind of order, during a period when "corruption" was their own festering and ultimately destructive cancer. Politics, the maker of strange bedfellows, and a background as broad and as varied as Russia itself, make for key components in this fascinating examination of political theory and efforts at self-government on the heels of the First World War.

This is an immensely informative and enjoyable book. Lincoln is among the better narrative historians although he does interject some analyses as well. The book Red Victory is not only about the Russian Civil War but about the almost insurmountable obstacles...political, economic, and military...faced by Lenin and the Bolsheviks after their seizure of power. The Russian Civil War was a confusing chaotic affair with numerous factions and personalities but Lincoln does a commendable job sorting out the details in a comprehensible manner. As he implies in his text, there are few geunuine heroes in this conflict as each side practiced attrocities as brutal as any in modern day civil wars. The one weakness is more detail should have been provided concerning the military aspects of the actual battles. Otherwise highly recommended.

This is an excellent and highly readable history of the Russian Civil War. It gives plenty of details about the campaigns, the personalities of the leaders, what conditions were like for both sides during the war and miscellaneous stories (my favorite was the episode of the purple ray in the Ukraine) without ever losing track of the big picture. I've read other books on the subject, but none of them told the story as clearly and vividly as this one.

This is an excellent and highly readable history of the Russian Civil War. It gives plenty of details about the campaigns, the personalities of the leaders, what conditions were like for both sides during the war and miscellaneous stories (my favorite was the episode of the purple ray in the Ukraine) without ever losing track of the big picture. I've read other books on the subject, but none of them told the story as clearly and vividly as this one.

Readers of this book about Russia's Civil War should find themselves cringing from the graphic depictions of unspeakable atrocities that characterized those dreadful years from 1918 to 1921 when supporters of the recently proclaimed Bolshevik regime of Lenin and Trotsky (the Reds) battled for survival against an eclectic array of monarchists, socialist, liberal, national liberationist, Cossack and foreign opponents (the Whites).

The Russian Civil War that generated savagery of an unprecedented scale came at a juncture when the nation's resources and citizens were completely spent: 7 million lay dead from the butchery and disease of world War I, while millions more suffered on the verge of starvation. Lincoln depicts how fighting continued unabated through scores of epidemics, hundred of battles, thousands of executions and widespread famine to claim another 20 million lives. Never, according to Lincoln, had a modern society killed its own people so readily. Lincoln argues that raw ideological passions spurred both sides to sanction teror as a justifiable weapon to be used in eradicating visions of the future that did not coincide with their own.

Lincoln is evenhanded in his reporting of the atrocities, but he lays the blame for precipitating the bloodlust principally on the Bolsheviks. Shortly after seizing power, Lenin faced the possibility that the population of Petrograd might starve to death. To avert catastrophe, he decided on a policy of food requisitioning that precipitated class warfare in the countryside. Dispatched to rural Russia were bands of workers armed with weapons and the authority to use them as they saw fit on peasants suspected of hoarding grain. In practice, such proletarian justice boiled down to looking in a peasant's soup pot. If thre was meat, the peasant was an enemy of the people, shot by the firing squad. The law of gun inexorably became the land.

No historian can know if starvation might have been averted more effectively if the Bolsheviks had followed a policy of cooperation with peasants rather than one of confrontation. Lincoln's contribution is to shed light on how the Bolsheviks' life-or-death struggle against crushing odds (14 foreign countries, including the U.S., eventually intervened on the side of the whites) forged their vision of the future. Victory came because the Reds relentlessly marshalled all human and natural resources within their grasp to protect a revolution that was staged in the name of the masses, but which ultimately sacrificed the people and the principles it had promised to empower. The unchecked tyranny of party officials and petty bureaucrats bred a pervasive despotism permeated with illegality that was to become the hallmark of the Soviet regime. Lincoln correctly asserts that "only by understanding [this civil war] experience can we start to unravel the mystery of the Soviet Union."

This book completed Lincoln's trilogy on the Russian revolutionary period. As in all of his works, Lincoln wrote a comprehensive account of the subject that is based on exhhaustive research in primary and secondary sources. Other available studies of the period more narrowly focus on foreign intervention, military campaigns or bolshevik domestic policies. Covering all of these topics in a single study of moderate length does, however, cause some problems: the book presumes more knowledge of Russian history than is typical of a general reader, yet glosses over details that would be of interst to the specialist.

Bruce Lincoln's recent death removes an important voice from the field of Russian history, but this book (along with the many others he wrote) will ensure that he will be remembered.

Lincoln is a writer who understands that when one is reviewing history, one must look far beyond the boundaries of the timepiece he or she is writing about. Lincoln's in-depth analysis of both the Civil War, the events that led to it, the figures and personalities involved, and the events it directly led to is both praise worthy and impressive on all literary levels. The only criticism I have of the both is that at times, mostly when dealing with complex economic issues, Lincoln seems to, but doesn't in any way, he only gives the illusion to, contradict himself. But I would certainly overlook this if considering to read this book, and if parts seem unclear, reread the passage to fully grasp the content. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in foraying into the Russian Civil War!

This is a very readable and thorough narrative of the Russian Civil War. Given the complexity of events, a good one volume history is a significant achievement. In a series of generally chronological, though somewhat overlapping chapters, Lincoln covers the origins of the war and the breakdown of the Imperial state followed by discussions of events in all major theaters over the course of the Civil War. Major themes include the anarchy that overcame Russia after the collapse of the Imperial state, the large number of contenders that arose in efforts to replace the Empire, the general disunity of the opposition to the Bolshevik regime, and the impressive scope of the Bolshevik achievement in reuniting Russia and developing a powerful army and the beginnings of a powerful state. Opposed by a variety of groups with conflicting goals, including moderate socialists, traditional liberals, and reactionary monarchists, the Bolsheviks had the great advantage of relatively unified command and goals. As Lincoln makes clear, the Bolsheviks also had significantly overall better leadership, beginning with Lenin and Trotsky and including a large number of other talented leaders and commanders. The Bolsheviks also had the advantage of controlling the Russian heartland, which provided greater reserves of manpower, food, and almost all of Russia's relatively primitive industrial capacity. The Bolsheviks clearly made the better strategic decisions, beginning with agreeing to a peace settlement with Germany.

Lincoln is particularly good on the many brutal aspects of the Civil War, describing atrocities on both sides in an evenhanded manner. He also gives a very good sense of the complexity of events and actors which included the Germans, the Allied powers, several nationalities in Russia, and a dizzying array of political groupings. The balance between narrative and anecdote is quite good, and the quality of writing is very good. I would have preferred more narrative or analysis of how the Bolsheviks organized their armies and the economy but its hard to fault Lincoln for not covering everything.

Lincoln provides a strong narrative, exhaustively researched and well constructed. Very easy to follow, this book investigates the aftermath of the October revolution.