The Russian origins of the First World War / Sean McMeekin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McMeekin, Sean, 1974-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1914-1918--Causes.

World War, 1914-1918.

World War, 1914-1918--Russia.

Imperialism--History--20th century.

Imperialism.

World War, 1914-1918--Campaigns--Eastern Front.

World War, 1914-1918--Campaigns--Middle East.

Russia--Foreign relations--1894-1917.

Russia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (345 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The catastrophe of the First World War, and the destruction, revolution, and enduring hostilities it wrought, make the issue of its origins a perennial puzzle. Since World War II, Germany has been viewed as the primary culprit. Now, in a major reinterpretation of the conflict, Sean McMeekin rejects the standard notions of the war's beginning as either a Germano-Austrian preemptive strike or a "tragedy of miscalculation." Instead, he proposes that the key to the outbreak of violence lies in St. Petersburg.It was Russian statesmen who unleashed the war through conscious policy decisions based on imperial ambitions in the Near East. Unlike their civilian counterparts in Berlin, who would have preferred to localize the Austro-Serbian conflict, Russian leaders desired a more general war so long as British participation was assured. The war of 1914 was launched at a propitious moment for harnessing the might of Britain and France to neutralize the German threat to Russia's goal: partitioning the Ottoman Empire to ensure control of the Straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.Nearly a century has passed since the guns fell silent on the western front. But in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire, World War I smolders still. Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Jews, and other regional antagonists continue fighting over the last scraps of the Ottoman inheritance. As we seek to make sense of these conflicts, McMeekin's powerful exposé of Russia's aims in the First World War will illuminate our understanding of the twentieth century.

Contents:

Introduction: History from the Deep Freeze

The Strategic Imperative in 1914

It Takes Two to Tango : The July Crisis

Russia's War : The Opening Round

Turkey's Turn

The Russians and Gallipoli

Russia and the Armenians

The Russians in Persia

Partitioning the Ottoman Empire

1917 : The Tsarist Empire at Its Zenith

Conclusion: The October Revolution and Historical Amnesia.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674063204

0674063201

OCLC:

768411322