This historical study examines how the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War influenced events on the world stage in the Great War and beyond. The Russian Revolution of 1917 is remembered as the catalyst for a bloody conflict between the Communist Red Army and the anti-Communist White Army. But in reality, the conflict was far more complex and multifaceted, involving forces from outside Russia. In this probing history, Michael Foley examines the Russian Civil War in terms of its relationship to the larger conflict raging across Europe. It is an epic tale of brutal violence and political upheaval featuring a colorful cast of characters—including Tsar Nicholas II, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill.

The Russian Revolution and Civil War - as never seen before! Packed with jaw-dropping, at times blood-curdling images, Russia Accursed! showcases the reaction of Ivan Vladmirov (1869-1947) to the human suffering and Bolshevik barbarity he observed as an artist-reporter during the years 1917-25. Some of his paintings and watercolours appeared in magazines and periodicals, including London weekly The Graphic (Vladimirov's mother was English). But other scenes - featuring point-blank executions, passers-by cutting chunks of meat from a dead horse or dogs gnawing at a human corpse - were deemed too shocking for publication and had to be secretly exported from the USSR by American relief workers. Selected from private collections, Russian museums and the Hoover Library at Stanford University, California, most of the 160 Vladimirov images in this majestic 324-page volume are published here for the first time. Placed in their historic context by scholarly essays, contemporary photographs and eye-witness quotes, they revolutionize our understanding of the beginnings of the Soviet Union.

This text explores the development of Lenin's thinking on violence, tracing the evolution of his thinking from the late 19th century, showing the impact of the First World War, and examining the Bolshevik seizure of power.