Hello, I am looking for books about the 1917-1923 revolutions and wars during that period. I find the period very fascinating and not really talked about much.
I am looking for books about books about the Munich/ruhr uprising, russian civil war , Hungarian romanian war, Hungarian Czechoslovak war,Polish Soviet, Polish Ukrainian war, Finnish civil war,etc.
I am not looking for books about exclusively about ww1
Send links/long lists of you want and thanks for the help!
A few titles to consider:
It focuses specifically on the South Caucasus (or Transcaucasus, though that term is becoming outdated), and is quite old now (published in 1951), but The Struggle for Transcaucasia (1917–1921) by Firuz Kazemzadeh is still the standard work on this era and this region. It's more narrative than analytical, but he looks at the impact of the Russian Revolution, the end of the First World War, the independence of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, and their subsequent annexations by the Bolsheviks. Highly recommended.
And for the Polish-Soviet War, the best book is probably White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War 1919-20 by Norman Davies. Again, it's a little old now (1972), but Davies is by far the most prominent historian in English on Polish history.
It isn't specifically on this period, but Lemberg, Lwów, L'viv, 1914 - 1947: Violence and Ethnicity in a Contested City by Christoph Mick (2015) looks at Lviv (now in Ukraine), and what it went through. Originally published in German, this is the English version and the first few chapters would be quite relevant.
Finally, for a larger look at the Russian Revolution, I am partial to Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914 - 1921 by Laura Engelstein (2019). It's large (800+ pages), but comprehensive. Orlando Figes' A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 (1996) is also good, but as the subtitle suggests also does quite a bit on the buildup to the revolution, but is also a book more aimed for a general audience.
Recently, I recommend October by China Neville. It’s a “narrative non-fiction” novel, meaning it’s based on real events and people, but takes artistic license to make the novel more fun or interesting. It’s about the October Revolution, as you might have guessed!
For a First-Hand account of the Russian Revolution as actually witnessed by an American Communist Revolutionary and Journalist, there is no greater book than John Reed’s 10 Days That Shook The World.
Jack Reed would return to the USSR in order to represent the US communist movement at COMINTERN, at great personal expense. He caught a respiratory infection while having to secretly travel to and from the USSR, enduring a prison term in Finland and incredibly harsh conditions, until eventually dying at a rather young age in 1920. He’s one of only three Americans given the honor of being buried at the Kremlin Necropolis.