LEADER 04129nam 2200685 a 450 001 9910457770703321 005 20210720111946.0 010 $a0-674-06320-1 024 7 $a10.4159/harvard.9780674063204 035 $a(CKB)2550000000074624 035 $a(OCoLC)768411322 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10518223 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000552027 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11366143 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000552027 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10538392 035 $a(PQKB)11408611 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3301013 035 $a(DE-B1597)178126 035 $a(OCoLC)979683594 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674063204 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3301013 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10518223 035 $a(EXLCZ)992550000000074624 100 $a20110729d2011 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe Russian origins of the First World War$b[electronic resource] /$fSean McMeekin 210 $aCambridge, Mass. $cBelknap Press of Harvard University Press$d2011 215 $a1 online resource (345 p.) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-674-07233-2 311 $a0-674-06210-8 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aIntroduction: 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. 330 $aThe 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. 606 $aWorld War, 1914-1918$xCauses 606 $aWorld War, 1914-1918$zRussia 606 $aImperialism$xHistory$y20th century 606 $aWorld War, 1914-1918$xCampaigns$zEastern Front 606 $aWorld War, 1914-1918$xCampaigns$zMiddle East 607 $aRussia$xForeign relations$y1894-1917 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aWorld War, 1914-1918$xCauses. 615 0$aWorld War, 1914-1918 615 0$aImperialism$xHistory 615 0$aWorld War, 1914-1918$xCampaigns 615 0$aWorld War, 1914-1918$xCampaigns 676 $a940.3/11 700 $aMcMeekin$b Sean$f1974-$0517480 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910457770703321 996 $aRussian origins of the First world war$9849662 997 $aUNINA