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Lead book review

For ruthless inhumanity, the Bolsheviks were unbeatable

The barbarity of the Russian civil war almost defies description – but in that, too, the Reds triumphed, says Antony Beevor

21 May 2022

9:00 AM

21 May 2022

9:00 AM

Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 Antony Beevor

Weidenfeld, pp.576, 30

‘For far too long,’ Sir Antony Beevor writes, ‘we have made the mistake of talking about wars as a single entity.’ In Russia: Revolution and Civil War he sets the record straight for the bitter years between 1917 and 1921, revealing the myriad ways in which individual actions constellated and 12 million people perished.

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