Blood on the Snow
The Russian Revolution 1914-1924
(Author) Robert Service'A terrific book about a terrifying subject by the best historian of Russia working today' - Michael Burleigh, author of The Third Reich 'This work of a lifetime presents high-octane, high-politcal drama' - Guardian In Blood on the Snow, Robert Service returns to the subject that has formed the backbone of his long and distinguished career: the Russian Revolution. For Service, the great unanswered question is how to reconcile the two vital narratives that underpin the extraordinary but troubled events of 1917. One puts the blame squarely on Tsar Nicholas II and on Alexander Kerensky's provisional government that deposed him. The other is the view from the bottom, that of the workers and peasants who wanted democratic socialism, not the Bolshevik dictatorship imposed by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and his successors. Service's vivid and revisionist account spans the period from the outbreak of the First World War to Lenin's death in 1924. In it, he reveals that key seeds of the revolution were sown by the Tsar's decision to join the war against Germany in 1914. He shows with brutal clarity how those events played out, eventually leading to the establishment of the totalitarian Soviet regime, which would endure for the next seven decades. Nicholas II, Kerensky and Lenin are to the fore, but Service enriches his narrative by drawing on little-known diaries of those such as the Vologda peasant Alexander Zamaraev, the NCO Alexei Shtukaturov and the Moscow accounts clerk Nikita Okunev. Through the testimony of these 'ordinary' people, Service traces the tortuous path that Russia took through war, revolution and civil war. 'This authoritative, detailed account shows how Lenin won control of Russia and caused untold misery . . . ' - The Times
Robert Service
Robert Service (1874-1958) was a British-Canadian poet known for his narrative poems about the Yukon and Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. His most notable works include "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee," which are characterized by their vivid storytelling and simple, rhyming verse. Service's poems were immensely popular during his lifetime and helped to popularize poetry in a more accessible and entertaining form. He is considered a pioneer of the ballad form in modern poetry and his works continue to be celebrated for their evocative imagery and memorable characters. His impact on the literary genre of narrative poetry remains significant, and he is best remembered for capturing the spirit of the North in his iconic poem "The Spell of the Yukon."
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