Russia in the age of wars, 1914-1945

This book contains essays by leading scholars of Soviet Russia on the political, strategic, diplomatic and international implications of war and of the war scare in the period running from Revolution to 1945. The autors deal with a variety of differing issues, but they all emphasise the profound impact which the world war and the civil war had on the shape taken by Soviet politics and political culture. Soviet political culture was in fact thoroughly shot through by the perception that the USSR was living in a world where international war was continually present, at least in latent form. The essays show how domestic and international politics were constantly interwined, and this increases our understanding of how Soviet Russia situated itself in world politics in the first half of the twentieth century. They constitute a significant contribution to the new history which has emerged since the end of the cold war, and make ample use of archival sources.