"Military History of Russian Civil War" Topic

Can anyone recommend a military history narrative--not a 300 pg history of Trotsky vs Lenin vs Democrats etc., but more the civil war itself--of the RCW? Some politics is obviously okay, but I wanted something more oriented to the course of the actual fighting.

At War With the Bolsheviks was a great book with lots of scenario ideas for the British Intervention but it didn't cover the whole thing.

Latest Osprey Essential Histories about RCW is excellent.

Well there's the Osprey. not every ones cup of tea I know but I found it a useful place to start gave me a good idea of who, what and where for someone with little first hand knowledge.

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Osprey's Essential History should be what you need.
Mind you, it is a bit bigger then the usual Ess Hist books, around 140 pages IIRC.

I know this is a little off the beaten path, and doesn't cover the RCW at large, but I just got a copy of Setting the East Ablaze. It's a great read, so far, and covers the Bolshevik attempts to push into Central Asia and China. It's giving me lots of ideas for scenarios.

The Russian Civil War seems less to me like a single, unified war, and more like a series of smaller wars. The area involved was just so vast and the different factions so diverse, that it's hard for me to think of it as all one conflict.

Mark Plant's Pygmywars site is fantastic….

pygmy-wars.50megs.com/home.html

This book is expensive, so try interlibrary loan unless you want to show off to your buddies ;-)
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You could try The Russian Civil War by Evan Mawdsley. Published in 1987 so probably out of print, but as I recall it was very much about the war with politics included as essential background.

There is very little if any books in English that worth talking about here. There is obviously a plethora of info in Russian… Osprey book MIGHT be an exception.
Indeed Mr Plant's site is quite extensive- I am not sure on the of information presented there, but especially on author's opinions about the subject he is trying to research…

I'd recommend Bruce Lincoln's "Red Victory" and Ewan Mawdsley's "The Russian Civil War".

Not small books but relatively easy reads and you don't feel as though you have to have a degree in Russian history to understand what's going on.

Both are, however, political histories, not military.

In a revolutionary conflict (or civil-war/insurgency), political support determines the loyalty (and performance) of leaders, troops, and those controling things like industry, natural resources, supply lines, etc. A strict military study is always useful to gamers, but you really can't completely ignore the political and economic aspects. A study of the political/economic decisions can explain why a seemingly pointless military move was made or how one can win all the battles and still lose the war.

Of course, but the request was for a military history of the conflict…..

I second the vote for the Osprey RCW book. Probably one of the best books in the series.

I will second White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian. It does not cover the entire RCW, but what is covered is very good. You will be able to have info for dozens of scenarios from it.

Mike