In War's Dark Shadow: The Russians Before the Great War [Paperback]

W. Bruce Lincoln (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 1994

This is the story of the Russian people's entry into the 20th century. It concentrates specifically on the 25 years before the outbreak of World War I.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An exemplary popular history, a work which is at once erudite, readable, and persuasive.... Lincoln's work gives a multisided portrait of the Russian people at the most critical moment of their modern history."
—Slavic Review

"A vivid, dramatic, and authoritative account of the societal clashes and contradictions that made the revolution of 1917 inevitable.... [Lincoln] makes history not only vivid but accessible."—Chicago Tribune Bookworld

"Lincoln has written a work of huge scope and astounding erudition."—Los Angeles Times

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

W. Bruce Lincoln is Distinguished Research Professor of Russian History at Northern Illinois University and the author of ten books including Passage to Armageddon, Nicholas I, and the The Romanovs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 9, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195089537
• ISBN-13: 978-0195089530
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,542,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative!!, October 17, 2005

By 

10catz (Houston or Moscow, depending on the time of the month) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In war's dark shadow: The Russians before the Great War (Hardcover)

I am Russian so I knew quite a lot about Russian history before opening this book. The book is the best guide to Russian history of the period. Here's why:

-It is written in a wonderful language - very easy to read, yet directed towards scholars.
-History is divided into chapters that concentrate on specific subjects.
-It is full of details that other history books often lack. I was surprised to see Bruce Lincoln use original Russian words instead of finding an English equivalent for it (such as "izba," "domovoj," "dvorovoj," "lapti," etc.).
-Finally, I've not yet read a book that concentrates so much, and gives such an in-depth study, on the subjects that are usually avoided being talked about "pre-revolutionary" times (simply because they are deemed not important in the light of warfare).

With this book you will get a clear idea of what the Russian society looked like on the dawn of WWI. Bruce Lincoln actually spent several years in the Russian archives doing research (but not just for this book), so he has a first-hand knowledge on the subject.

The chapters discuss the following subjects:

Chapter 1 - 1891: The Fateful Year:
Basic overview of the situation in Russia by the year of 1891: famine, construction of trans-Siberian railway, some politics.

Chapter 2 - In the Wake of Famine:
Famine, peasants and life in the country.

Chapter 3 - Russia's New Lords:
Emancipation, new layer of society "Kuptsi" and arts and trade associated with it.

Chapter 4 - Life in the Lower Depths:
Proletariat and life in cities and towns.

Chapter 5 - The Few Who Dared:
Revolutionaries - formation of the political parties, radicals, impact on literature.

Chapter 6 - Defenders of the Old Order:
Royal Defenders - key figures that supported the old "tzar" order; their lives and activities.

Chapter 7 - "A Small Victorious War":
The Japanese War - why, when, and how. Gives the background, as well.

Chapter 8 - 1905: The Year of Turmoil:
Revolution of 1905.

Chapter 9 - "What We Want is a Great Russia!":
Government - parties, duma, people behind the law, the lawmaking process.

Chapter 10 - "The Children of Russia's Dreadful Years":
Art revolution.

Chapter 11 - The Last Days of Peace:
Political situation at the dawn of the WWI - foreign relations and repressions.

Chapter 12 - The Drums of War:
WWI and how it affected Russia and its people.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent History of Pre-Bolshevik Russia, May 27, 1998

By 

David Smith (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In War's Dark Shadow: The Russians Before the Great War (Paperback)

"In War's Dark Shadow" is one of the best histories I have ever read. Lincoln does an excellent job of making the reader feel what each of the major participants of this extraordinary time in history felt, from the peasants (narod) and industrial workers, to the revolutionaries and conservatives, and finally to the monarchs.

No stone is left unturned in this exhaustive study of the events and the perceptions of those events that led to the downfall of the Romanovs and capitalism in 1917. Many people will be surprised to see the extent of anti-Semitism and xenophobia that permeated the society that later fought off the Nazis in World War II.

For an entirely new perspective on the Russian people, I highly recommend this work.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific !, April 22, 2002

By 

J. J. Bevill "JJBevill" (Houston, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In war's dark shadow: The Russians before the Great War (Hardcover)

In the forward, W. Bruce Lincoln states the book is "...an effort to explore the lives, thoughts, hopes, and dreams of the men and women who lived in the world's largest empire and to convey some sense of the tensions that tore at the fabric of their existence on the eve of the Great War and the Revolution of 1917." In this effort he succeeds brilliantly.

We see portraits of Tsar Alexander III, Nicholas II, Pobedonostsev, Lenin, Rasputin, and a host of other generals, officials and ordinary people who shaped that era.

We get an insider's look at what life was like in a peasant community, inside the peasant's izba or house, and their attitudes towards schooling, medicine and religion. We go inside the growing factories and the slums the workers inhabited in the cities with rapidly developing industry. We see the new nobility of the industrial barons, the revolutionaries fighting the tsarist autocracy, the defenders of the Old Order...all come to life in these pages.

Graphic descriptions are given of the vicious pogroms against Jews. The impact of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in both economic and a political aspects is covered. The 1904 war with Japan is there with its criminally incompetent generals and and admirals and the war's impact on the development of the Revolution of 1905 as well as the mood of the populace as the nations slides toward the Great War.

This well written, illuminating, detailed and well documented book is a classic work on the Russian society of those years and fleshes out the soul of Russia as few other books do. 16 pages of photos. Highly recommended.