Customer Reviews

The Russian Civil War (1) : The Red Army (Men at Arms Series, 293)

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THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR (2): WHITE ARMIES
MIKHAIL KHVOSTOV
OSPREY PUBLISHING, 2004
QUALITY SOFTCOVER, $17.95, 48 PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS, ILLUSTRATIONS, TABLES


The Russian Civil War of 1918-1922 arose out of the cataclysmic events of World War One. This civil war dwarfed all others of the 20th Century in scope and significance. The lives of tens of millions were lost or changed forever in the ensuing conflagration-from battle, disease, famine, imprisonment, execution, dislocation, and exile. New weapons of war emerged. The airplane, armored car, tank, and armored train wee tested over the vast expanses of Russia, the largest country in the world, in a war of mobility not seen on the relatively static fronts that characterized World War One. Even so, the older weapons of war remained. This was the last war in which cavalry armies duelled en masse, sword on lance. Bugles still rang and unfurled flags fluttered above infantry charging into the steel mouths of guns. More than two dozen countries took part in these torturous years of civil war. Peripheral regions of the former Russian Empire that had broken away to form new nations had to fight for independence: Finland, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. Other countries directly intervened in the conflict as a consequence of events arising out of World War One, including Great Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, Germnay, Austria-Hungary, Romania, Greece, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States. Still others participated in the fighting because their troops were trapped inside Russia at the end of World War One, such as Serbia and Czechoslovakia, or fought because the civil war spilled over into their territory, for example, Mongolia and China. At the end, the maps of Northeastern and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Far East had to be redrawn. Soon after the 1917 February revolution, and the abdication of Czar Nicholas II, the White cause began to emerge and oppose the Bolsheviks. There was, however, no single, united White Army to fight the Red Army and the forces available to the Whites represented a spectrum of political factions including monarchist military organizations and Social-Democrats. Many of the Cossack hosts also sided with the Whites, seeing it as an opportunity to create their own independent states; others remained neutral or hostile to both sides. This fascinating book, THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR (2) WHITE ARMIES examines the colorful uniforms and the equipment of the White armies of the Russian Civil War. With that being said, there is one mistake that must be corrected in regard to the caption on Page 46. The initial deployment of 1,889 enlisted and 48 officers of the 12th, 13th, and 62nd Infantry Regiments of the 8th Infantry Division deployed to Russia on the USS Thomas in mid-August, 1918. This was followed by a second deployment of 1,886 on the USS Sheridan and 1,811 on the USS Logan in September, 1918 to Russia. Prior to the above deployments, were the deployments of the 27th and 31st Infantry Regiments from the Philippines on the USS Merritt, USS Crook, and USS Warren to Russia via Japan in early August, 1918. They were the first U.S. Army units to arrive in Vladivostok. Seventy-five U.S. Marines from the USS Brooklyn (the flagship of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet) were reinforced by fifty U.S. Marines from the USS New Orleans (it had sailed from Cavite, Philippines).


Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida

Top notch. I can't imagine that you would find this information anywhere else without conducting exhaustive research.

A very informative book with great illustrations.
I highly recommend this book to someone with an
interest in this period.

The art in this ospery edition is really quite good. There is a great amount of attention paied to uniform details. The birsk 48 page read provided some useful insight into the structure of the White Army of the Russian Civil War such as there close collaboration with Kuban and Don Cossacks also the multi-layered nature of the anti-Bolshevik movement as a whole from the right wing monarchists to the arachist partisans that fought red and white. i really loved the plates on the black uniformed officers units. Buy it!!!

The RED ARMY is a good hastely review of the RCW from the Red Army view. I recommend it to all. However, some of the information is incorrect and OOB chart are wrong. The book is basically an extremely edited version of the Soviet encyclopedia "Civil War and Military Intervention in the SSSR". Many of the entries in Red Army are from the encyc. word for word and sometimes the best info is left out or conclusions incorrect. Granted the Osprey format does not have a lot of room for text. Its companion the White Army is more detailed where the Red Army is terrible general in detail. If you could see the source for the info you would understand what has been left out. I liked the book, but was left with more questions than when I started.

This book is an excellent reference for anyone interested in the Russian Civil War (just as its companion book on the Red Army is). I loved it for a wealth of information on the counter-revolutionary forces, as well as its beautiful illustrations.

A very well done book, good illustations throughout. Covers the gamut of armies opposed to the Bolsheviks, from regional to Restorative. A good primer on a subject oft neglected in Western circles.