The Russian origins of the First World War [electronic resource] / Sean McMeekin.
McMeekin, Sean, 1974-
2011
D514 .M35 2011eb
Available Online

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Title The Russian origins of the First World War [electronic resource] / Sean McMeekin.
Author McMeekin, Sean, 1974-
ISBN 9780674063204 electronic book
9780674062108
Imprint Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xii, 324 p.) : ill., maps, ports.
Call Number D514 .M35 2011eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 940.3/11
Summary The catastrophe of the First World War, and the destruction, revolution, and enduring hostilities it wrought, make the issue of its origins a perennial puzzle. Since World War II, Germany has been viewed as the primary culprit. Now, in a major reinterpretation of the conflict, Sean McMeekin rejects the standard notions of the war's beginning as either a Germano-Austrian preemptive strike or a tragedy of miscalculation. Instead, he proposes that the key to the outbreak of violence lies in St. Petersburg.It was Russian statesmen who unleashed the war through conscious policy decisions based on imperial ambitions in the Near East. Unlike their civilian counterparts in Berlin, who would have preferred to localize the Austro-Serbian conflict, Russian leaders desired a more general war so long as British participation was assured. The war of 1914 was launched at a propitious moment for harnessing the might of Britain and France to neutralize the German threat to Russia's goal: partitioning the Ottoman Empire to ensure control of the Straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.Nearly a century has passed since the guns fell silent on the western front. But in the lands of the former Ottoman Empire, World War I smolders still. Sunnis and Shiites, Arabs and Jews, and other regional antagonists continue fighting over the last scraps of the Ottoman inheritance. As we seek to make sense of these conflicts, McMeekin's powerful exposé of Russia's aims in the First World War will illuminate our understanding of the twentieth century.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Print version: McMeekin, Sean, 1974- Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011 9780674072336
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Record Appears in Online Resources > Ebooks
All Resources
Introduction: History from the Deep Freeze
The Strategic Imperative in 1914
It Takes Two to Tango : The July Crisis
Russia's War : The Opening Round
Turkey's Turn
The Russians and Gallipoli
Russia and the Armenians
The Russians in Persia
Partitioning the Ottoman Empire
1917 : The Tsarist Empire at Its Zenith
Conclusion: The October Revolution and Historical Amnesia.

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