{"product_id":"russia-in-flames-war-revolution-civil-war-1914-1921-9780199794218","title":"Russia in Flames: War  Revolution  Civil War  1914 - 1921","description":"\u003cp\u003eOctober 1917  heralded as the culmination of the Russian Revolution  remains a defining moment in world history. Even a hundred years after the events that led to the emergence of the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state  debate continues over whether  as historian E. H. Carr put it decades ago  these earth-shaking days were a \"landmark in the emancipation of mankind from past oppression\" or \"a crime and a disaster.\" Some things are clear. After the implosion of the three-hundred-year-old Romanov dynasty as a result of the First World War  Russia was in crisis--one interim government replaced another in the vacuum left by imperial collapse.  In this monumental and sweeping new account  Laura Engelstein delves into the seven years of chaos surrounding 1917--the war  the revolutionary upheaval  and the civil strife it provoked. These were years of breakdown and brutal violence on all sides  punctuated by the decisive turning points of February and October. As Engelstein proves definitively  the struggle for power engaged not only civil society and party leaders  but the broad masses of the population and every corner of the far-reaching empire  well beyond Moscow and Petrograd.  Yet in addition to the bloodshed they unleashed  the revolution and civil war revealed democratic yearnings  even if ideas of what constituted \"democracy\" differed dramatically. Into that vacuum left by the Romanov collapse rushed long-suppressed hopes and dreams about social justice and equality. But any possible experiment in self-rule was cut short by the October Revolution. Under the banner of true democracy  and against all odds  the Bolshevik triumph resulted in the ruthless repression of all opposition. The Bolsheviks managed to harness the social breakdown caused by the war and institutionalize violence as a method of state-building  creating a new society and a new form of power.  Russia in Flames offers a compelling narrative of heroic effort and brutal disappointment  revealing that what happened during these seven years was both a landmark in the emancipation of Russia from past oppression and a world-shattering disaster. As regimes fall and rise  as civil wars erupt  as state violence targets civilian populations  it is a story that remains profoundly and enduringly relevant.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45656686919733,"sku":"ByrdShop_0199794219","price":23.1,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780199794218.jpg?v=1781985898","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/russia-in-flames-war-revolution-civil-war-1914-1921-9780199794218","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}