Civil War in Russia

by David Footman

The Russian Civil War broke out in late 1917, shortly after the Bolsheviks had established their then precarious hold on the main centers of Russia. For the next three years it was fought savagely and confusedly over huge areas of the exhausted empire. The result was to confirm and consolidate Bolshevik power and to make possible the Russia of Stalin and the Russia of Krushchev [sic]. At the time of the struggle information coming out from the various fronts was patchy and often misleading; and much of what has since been written is colored by propaganda, self-justification and myth.

Civil War in Russia, based on firsthand contemporary sources, gives an account of the war as a whole and goes on to describe in detail some of the more significant aspects and episodes. It is an attempt to set out what actually happened; to show how the war was fought and who were the men that fought it; and to provide, out of the welter of idealism, frustration, brutality, self-interest and blunders, a coherent picture of a struggle whose outcome has had so great an influence upon the future of the world.
—from the front flap of the dust jacket.

Includes a Bibliographical Note, Relevant Dates, and an Index

Publisher’s Praeger Publications in Russian History and World Communism, #114
Publisher’s Books That Matter
pre-ISBN edition

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961