To break Russia's chains : Boris Savinkov and his wars against the Tsar and the Bolsheviks / Vladimir Alexandrov.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alexandrov, Vladimir E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Revolutionaries--Russia--Biography.

Revolutionaries.

Russia.

Savinkov, B. V. (Boris Viktorovich), 1879-1925.

Savinkov, B. V.

Russia--Politics and government--1894-1917.

Politics and government.

Soviet Union--History--Revolution, 1917-1921.

Soviet Union.

History.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 562 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Pegasus Books edition.

Distribution:

[New York, New York] : Distributed by Simon & Schuster, 2021.

Other Title:

Boris Savinkov and his wars against the Tsar and the Bolsheviks

Place of Publication:

New York : Pegasus Books, 2021.

Summary:

"A brilliant examination of the enigmatic Russian revolutionary about whom Winston Churchill said "few men tried more, gave more, dared more and suffered more for the Russian people," and who remains a legendary and controversial figure in his homeland today. Although now largely forgotten outside Russia, Boris Savinkov was famous, and notorious, both at home and abroad during his lifetime, which spans the end of the Russian Empire and the establishment of the Soviet Union. A complex and conflicted individual, he was a paradoxically moral revolutionary terrorist, a scandalous novelist, a friend of epoch-defining artists like Modigliani and Diego Rivera, a government minister, a tireless fighter against Lenin and the Bolsheviks, and an advisor to Churchill. At the end of his life, Savinkov conspired to be captured by the Soviet secret police, and as the country's most prized political prisoner made headlines around the world when he claimed that he accepted the Bolshevik state. But as this book argues, this was Savinkov's final play as a gambler and he had staked his life on a secret plan to strike one last blow against the tyrannical regime. Neither a "Red" nor a "White," Savinkov lived an epic life that challenges many popular myths about the Russian Revolution, which was arguably the most important catalyst of twentieth-century world history. All of Savinkov's efforts were directed at transforming his homeland into a uniquely democratic, humane and enlightened state. There are aspects of his violent legacy that will, and should, remain frozen in the past as part of the historical record. But the support he received from many of his countrymen suggests that the paths Russia took during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries -- the tyranny of communism, the authoritarianism of Putin's regime -- were not the only ones written in her historical destiny. Savinkov's goals remain a poignant reminder of how things in Russia could have been, and how, perhaps, they may still become someday. Written with novelistic verve and filled with the triumphs, disasters, dramatic twists and contradictions that defined Savinkov's life, this book shines a light on an extraordinary man who tried to change Russian and world history." -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. One The Personal is Always Political in Russia

ch. Two The Minister

ch. Three The Grand Duke

ch. Four Catastrophes

ch. Five Crossroads

ch. Six Behind the Lines

ch. Seven Defending the Revolution

ch. Eight The War against the Bolsheviks in Russia

ch. Nine The War against the Bolsheviks from Abroad

ch. Ten End Game

ch. Eleven The Gambler's Last Throw.

Notes:

Maps on lining papers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 513-526) and index.

ISBN:

9781643137186

1643137182

OCLC:

1202304908

Publisher Number:

99988675060