Revolution and Civil War in North Russia shines a much-needed light on the establishment and consolidation of Bolshevik power on the civil war periphery and examines the Allied/anti-Bolshevik military and home fronts from a previously uncharted perspective.
Expanding our understanding of the Russian civil war, this book provides the first detailed, archival-based study in English to analyse the two neighbouring regions of Karelia and Murmansk. Despite not being far from the revolutionary capital, Petrograd, both territories resisted the establishment of Bolshevik power longer than many others and so this study offers novel insights into the complexities of the struggle that eventually led to communist rule.
Alistair S. Wright reflects on how both Karelia and Murmansk relied on food being imported, comparing how this problem was dealt with by the two independent local governments. Wright shows, for the first time, how providing Murmansk with food supplies was a key feature of Allied intervention during the conflict, part of an informative analysis of Bolshevik and Allied food supply polices to be found throughout the book.
By:
Dr Alistair S. Wright (Independent Scholar UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 238mm,
Width: 164mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 540g
ISBN: 9781350434011
ISBN 10: 1350434019
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 12 June 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction 1. Local Politics in Petrozavodsk and Murmansk, February 1917-March 1918 2. ‘Self-rule’ in the Periphery: Politics in Petrozavodsk and Murmansk, February-June 1918 3. Allied Intervention and Cooperation in the Murmansk Region, June-December 1918 4. The Struggle for Bolshevik Control: Petrozavodsk, July-December 1918 5. Murmansk goes to War, January to June 1919 6. The Murmansk Home Front, January to June 1919 7. The Bolshevik Fight for Survival, January to June 1919 8. Final Act: Red Victory, July 1919 to March 1920 Conclusion Bibliography Index
Alistair S. Wright is an independent scholar and alumnus of the University of Glasgow, UK, where he received a PhD. He has published articles in the journals Revolutionary Russia and Europe-Asia Studies and was a contributing author to the book Russia’s Home Front in War and Revolution, 1914-22. Reintegration – The Struggle for the State (2018).
Reviews for Revolution and Civil War in North Russia: Karelia and the Murmansk Region, 1917-1920
Revolution and Civil War in North Russia is a masterful study of the overlooked northern regions of Murmansk and Karelia. Alistair Wright provides a detailed account of the regions’ unique experience of revolution and civil war shaped by the Allied intervention to win the world war and its northerly environment. At the same time, Wright deftly shows how the various debates over the direction of the revolution and the political crises in the centre echoed loudly in Murmansk and Karelia. This is an essential reading for anyone interested in regional history of the Russian Revolution. * Aaron B. Retish, Professor of Russian History, Wayne State University, USA *
