The author has studied the recent history of Russia, from attending the Joint Services School for Linguists and the career that followed, that adds valuable knowledge and insights to the subject. The event that brutalized Russia from 1917 was to cause and react with a series of major events of the 20th Century to the detriment of the world – Most Highly Recommended.
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NAME: Red October, The Revolution That Changed The World FILE: R2569 AUTHOR: Douglas Boyd PUBLISHER: The History Press BINDING: hard back PAGES: 224 PRICE: £20.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Russia, USSR, Soviet Union, Red October, October Revolution, Czar Nicholas, 1917, Russian Civil War, White Russians, Cold War ISBN: 978-0-7509-8244-3 IMAGE: B2569.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/ybyovw8k LINKS: DESCRIPTION: The author has studied the recent history of Russia, from attending the Joint Services School for Linguists and the career that followed, that adds valuable knowledge and insights to the subject. The event that brutalized Russia from 1917 was to cause and react with a series of major events of the 20th Century to the detriment of the world – Most Highly Recommended. Considering the effects that the October Revolution had on the world, remarkably little is known about it, even less the history of Russia before 1917. This may explain why the Communist Revolution has been regarded as a very different course for Russia. Before 1917, Russia was largely isolated from the world around it, by the choice of most of Russia's rulers. Very few Czars, before the ill-fated Czar Nicholas, are known outside Russia, or even inside. Ivan IV, Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, are the few who have become part of history and received the attentions of historians outside Russia. As a result, the terrible course of WWI and the seizure of power by Lenin and his Bolsheviks brought the Russian impact on international relationships to wide notice. Although the Soviet Union then withdrew from the scene until the surprise pact between the German Nazis and the Soviets on the eve of WWII, the murder of the Czar and his family achieved wide press coverage at the time and Russian refugees added to what was accepted as the pool of knowledge. The result was huge areas that were unknown, a few brief fragments of debated knowledge and a larger area of 'knowledge' that was the view of those who escaped the Soviet Union, its subjugated nations and, later, its European satellites. This is unfortunate because politicians have frequently attempted new policies without really understanding Russia and the Soviet Union. That failure to understand continues to dog international relations and create new tensions. The reality of Russian history is of a nation in the west that originated from the Ukraine and spread out to the east and south over the centuries. It rapidly established a political and social cycle that has remained largely unchanged, even by Red October. Periodically, a strong leader has emerged and expanded the borders of Russia. When that leader has died, the next leader has usually been much weaker and the Russian Empire has shrunk back, only to be followed by another strong leader who has reversed the process and expanded the Russian borders. Since 1917, the Soviets have followed that process, with Stalin expanding Russian influence and territory, followed by weaker leaders who have presided over the subsequent retraction of Empire. With the implosion of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, the gains made by Stalin were lost and, with them, territories that had long been part of the Russian Empire in the centuries before the Soviet revolution. Once more a new stronger leader has emerged in the form of Putin, attempting to expand Russian territory and influence. From outside, much of the cycles of expansion and contraction have been invisible because Russia has long held a fear of foreigners. It has long been a huge country geographically and, like the USA, has been able to amuse itself within its borders, coming to note only where it has swallowed, or regurgitated, a small neighbour. Within its boundaries, it has treated its people very harshly. Ivan IV became known as Ivan the Terrible because news of his pogroms emerged via the handful of traders from western Europe who were allowed into Russia. His hit squads spread out across Russia visiting horror on the peasants and the nobles. They were remarkably similar in their brutality to the Soviet security organs. Huge unknown numbers of people perished in the most horrible manner. Catherine the Great, a German woman who married and replaced a Czar, was to follow the familiar process of ruling through fear. Outside Russia, Peter the Great is often remembered as the Czar who tried to modernize Russia and increase its trading interaction with other nations. As a result he is often thought of as a benevolent and enlightened ruler. In reality he was as brutal and blood soaked as any of the other Czars, even having a son knouted to death. It was perhaps therefore to be expected that the Russian Revolution was to be not a triumph of the people rising up against a tyrannical Czar, but the seizure of power by a small band of zealots who thought they could force Russia into a mould of their design. They created a new Russian Empire that followed the traditional path of the cycles of Russian expansion and contraction, marked by incredible brutality to the Russian people, where millions died. Under Stalin, the Soviet Union exterminated more people than the German Nazis, including large numbers of Jews. They were to a degree successful but only under Stalin. The initial years prepared for him. His death saw the experiment, of another form of corrosive socialism, falter and lead into a new period of decay. Under Putin, a new experiment has begun where the drivers are the interests of organized crime, so perhaps little different from the Soviet period, sharing also much with the older history of Russia. The author has used his extensive knowledge of the subject to produce a well-written expose that provides many provoking insights. The text is supported by a very interesting photo-plate section.