The story of Russia’s First World War remains largely unknown, neglected by historians who have been more interested in the grand drama that unfolded in 1917. In Russia’s First World War: A Social and Economic History Peter Gatrell shows that war is itself ‘revolutionary’ – rupturing established social and economic ties, but also creating new social and economic relationships, affiliations, practices and opportunities.
Russia’s First World War brings together the findings of Russian and non-Russian historians, and draws upon fresh research. It turns the spotlight on what Churchill called the ‘unknown war’, providing an authoritative account that finally does justice to the impact of war on Russia’s home front
Dedication
Contents
List of tables and maps
Preface
Introduction
1. The front line, 1914-1916
2. ‘Educated society' and the Russian elite
3. Narod: plebeian society during the war
4. Tsarist authority in question, 1915-1916
5. Mobilising industry: Russia's war economy at full stretch
6. Paying for the war, Russian style
7. Feeding Russia: food supply as Achilles' heel
8. Economic nationalism and the mobilisation of ethnicity in the 'great patriotic war'
9. Hierarchy subverted: the February Revolution and the Provisional Government
10. Economic meltdown and revolutionary objectives: from European war to Civil War, 1917-1918
11. Russia's First World War: an overview
Biography
Peter Gatrell is Professor of Economic History at the University of Manchester. He has written extensively on Russia, including (with Nick Baron) Homelands: W ar , Population and Statehood in Eastern Europe and Russia , 1918-1924 (2004) and the prize-winning book, A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia during World W ar I (1999).
