Imperial apocalypse : the Great War and the destruction of the Russian empire /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Sanborn, Joshua A., author.
Edition:First edition.
Imprint:Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014.
Description:xii, 287 pages : maps ; 24 cm.
Language:English
Series:The Greater War
Greater War.
Subject:
Format: Map Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/10094802
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9780199642052 (hardback)
0199642052 (hardback)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary:The volume opens by laying out the theoretical relationship between state failure, social collapse, and decolonization, and then moves chronologically from the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 through the fierce battles and massive human dislocations of 1914-16 to the final collapse of the empire in the midst of revolution in 1917-18. Imperial apocalypse is the first major study which treats the demise of the Russian Empire as part of the twentieth-century phenomenon of modern decolonization, and provides a readable account of military activity and political change throughout this turbulent period of war and revolution. Sanborn argues that the sudden rise of groups seeking national self-determination in the borderlands of the empire was the consequence of state failure, not its cause. At the same time, he shows how the destruction of state institutions and the spread of violence from the front to the rear led to a collapse of traditional social bonds and the emergence of a new, more dangerous, and more militant political atmosphere.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
  • List of Maps
  • Sources for Maps
  • Introduction: Imperial Challenge
  • 1. The Outbreak of War and the Transformation of the Borderlands
  • 2. The Front Migrates
  • 3. Remobilizing the Military: Combat Innovation, POWs, and Forced Labor
  • 4. Remobilizing Society: Nurses, Doctors, and Social Control
  • 5. Revolution
  • 6. Decolonization
  • Conclusion: Imperial Apocalypse
  • Works Cited
  • Index