It seems wrong to categorise this book as military history. It is like reading a film ... Like a cameraman, Beevor twists his lens between the close-up and the wide-angle ... Both Beevor and his research assistant have a novelist’s eye for the telling detail, even though their canvas is half the size of the planet...This kind of detail accumulates to powerful effect ... The field of Russian civil war studies is crowded in many languages, and Beevor, whose books have sold millions of copies, has mined the sources with academic rigour. In this volume he confidently sets out military strategy in all its complexity and confusion, marshalling shifts, tides and patterns as corps, armies, guerrillas, underground cells and loose military alliances on flanks and fronts fragment and consolidate. Sometimes describing events day by day, he charts congresses, offensives and counter-offensives, insurrections, hungry winters, real or invented bourgeois sabotage and the ‘whole imbroglio of misunderstandings’ as strategies alter and alliances weaken ... It does not matter that the reader struggles to follow whether the 14th Division on the left flank of the 9th Army ever did meet up with the 10th Army based in Tsaritsyn: the story steams through the fog of war ... Beevor presents dense data in a resolutely narrative style that is fluent and agreeable ... Directly quoted individual voices are the yeast that allow history to rise ... Together with a strong opening, setting the events of 1917 in their historical place, these glances to the future lend the story a robust sense of context. Otherwise, the book avoids the longue durée approach ... The author is so accomplished that occasional infelicities come as a relief. It is pleasing when days are numbered, word spreads like wildfire, silence is stony and even Vladimir Ilyich does not pull his punches. Beevor might be brilliant, and might have mastered the accessible, vivid style to which all modern historians aspire and, worst of all, have sold those beastly millions, but a cliché beats him from time to time. I will therefore end with a cliché myself. The book is a masterpiece.

Beevor strips away the misty romanticism that once surrounded the revolution ... Likewise, Beevor’s reconstruction of the storming of the Winter Palace on November 7, when Kerensky’s Provisional Government was toppled, is a lot more sordid than Sergei Eisenstein’s depiction in his film, October ... Beevor skilfully recounts a 'fiendishly complex' war fought on Russia’s periphery, in Belarus, the Baltic, Ukraine, Poland, Siberia and Persia ... Beevor, best known for his formidable book Stalingrad, commands authority as a historian because his research is comprehensive and his conclusions free of political agenda. He’s a skilled writer, but his prose is not what makes his books special. Rather, it’s the confidence that his authority conveys — one senses that he knows his subject as well as anyone. He allows his mountain of evidence to speak for itself, simply charting the course of this horrible war, exposing its boundless cruelty. This is easily the most horrifying war story I’ve ever read. One wonders how Russia could ever contain so much suffering ... This is an unmerciful book, unceasingly agonising, yet always irresistible. Horror is delivered in relentless rhythm.

[Beevor] is a wonderfully lucid writer who marshals the extensive material with great verve and understanding ... What is instantly striking is that the kind of violence we’ve witnessed on television of late has a long and depressing history in the region ... At its most bloody points the book requires a strong stomach to continue reading, and I was sometimes left with the slightly dazed feeling I remember experiencing after watching Elem Klimov’s harrowing Come and See. But its saving grace is the personal testimonies that Beevor assembles, having been unearthed by his much-valued researcher Luba Vinogradova, to whom the book is dedicated ... Beevor has captured the beginnings of the tragedy in mesmerising detail.

... does not break any new ground or offer any new perspective, and it fits squarely within the latest historiography. He gives scant attention to the causes that led to the February Revolution in 1917, dispatching the reign of Nicholas II in fewer than 20 pages ... focuses less on the politics of these years than on the military aspects of the conflict, which ought to be expected given Mr. Beevor’s expertise. Readers seeking a broader treatment would do well to read Laura Engelstein’s Russia in Flames (2018), but for the story of the warfare that bloodied the lands of the former Russian empire one can do no better than Mr. Beevor’s Russia. The various armies, domestic and foreign, the ever-shifting fronts, the savage battles, the parade of striking personalities—all are recounted here in riveting, and at times revolting, detail ... There is a wealth of new information here that adds considerable texture and nuance to his story and helps to set Russia apart from previous works.

Beevor... commands authority as a historian because his research is comprehensive and his conclusions free of political agenda. He’s a skilled writer, but his prose is not what makes his books special. Rather, it’s the confidence that his authority conveys ... This is easily the most horrifying war story I’ve ever read. One wonders how Russia could ever contain so much suffering.

Antony Beevor singles out Bolshevik unity by comparison to the divisions among their enemies – everyone from tsarist generals to Ukrainian nationalists and peasant anarchists – as the key cause of Red victory. He may well be right, but other factors were also crucial ... Beevor describes well the hesitancy, divisions and weaknesses of foreign intervention between 1919 and 1921 in support of counter-revolution ... Beevor weaves his way through the enormous complexities of these years with intelligence, wit and a talent for describing individuals and events. As one might expect, he is in his element when describing battles, campaigns and the down-to-earth realities of war. He conveys well the appalling savagery, casual violence and suffering brought on by the Civil War ... This leads me to my only serious criticism of this well-informed and well-written book. Beevor has previously written a good study of the Spanish Civil War. Why the left won in Russia and the right in Spain is a fascinating question that tells one much not just about Spain and Russia, but also about twentieth-century European history as a whole...Beevor devotes only a paragraph to the topic in his conclusion. I longed for pages. This may be a case of blaming an author for writing the book he wanted to write, rather than the one the reviewer himself fancied. Even so, I would be intrigued to know what Antony Beevor makes of the comparison between the two civil wars.

... rightly wide-ranging, from the Pacific, where Japanese and Americans were numbered among the anti-Soviet forces, to Europe, in all its diversity. Though they are not mentioned in this otherwise, there were indeed some Australians fighting in the civil war that followed the Bolshevik takeover in November 1917 ... There is, predictably, very little scope for humour in Antony Beevor’s impressive and eminently readable new study. Instead, we have a vivid analysis of a conflict that was to shape the century that followed it ... What is striking in this book is the immense range of division in the Bolsheviks’ opponents, from mild liberals to seemingly deranged reactionaries. The intervention of foreign powers further complicates the scene, enabling the Soviets to speak of a hostile capitalist encirclement. Such anxieties, real or imagined, remain in the armoury of Putin and his cohorts today.

... makes compelling use of comparable witness testimony, including material from Russian archives gathered by his collaborator and friend, Lyubov Vinogradova ... After a routine account of the upheavals of 1917 — popular unrest in Petrograd; Romanov abdication; Bolshevik coup; suppression of elections — Beevor hits his stride with the formation of the Volunteer Army and rising military opposition to the Bolsheviks ... While Beevor’s canvas is tighter than Smele’s, the book gives a sense of this lasting resonance ... Beevor spares no detail in his account of cruelty on the Soviet side ... As an account of internecine inhumanity, Russia has panoramic sweep. Had Beevor pushed harder to explain that inhumanity, the book might have been thought-provoking too.

Beevor masterfully recounts the violent events that seemed to change everything ... Beevor’s account of what followed is both authoritative and disheartening ... This is a vivid description of a revolution that featured as much mass murder as military action ... Always a meticulous researcher, Beevor has done his homework in an era when everyone recorded their thoughts (even the czar kept a diary), delivering a detailed yet unedifying story through the eyes of many participants ... A definitive account.

... tart ... Detailed breakdowns of the 'see-saw' fighting between the Red and White armies are interwoven with sharp assessments of how White leaders Anton Denikin and Pyotr Wrangel bungled support from foreign units, and other strategic matters. Fine-grained yet fluidly written, this sweeping portrait illuminates the chaos and tragedy of Russian civil war.