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The Other First World War: The Blood-Soaked Eastern Front Hardcover – December 1, 2014

by Douglas Boyd (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 46 ratings
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A challenge to the conventional Western Front bias of World War I history, a must-have for any war historian

Unlike the stalemate of the trenches in Flanders, the little-known eastern front of World War I was a war of movement that caused 12 million casualties, including female combatants. It spanned thousands of miles, from the Baltic to the Black and Caspian seas, before spreading north to the Arctic and east to the Pacific, embroiling several thousand British Empire and U.S. soldiers in secret operations in the far North, Siberia, and Ukraine. After the war, Britain and France rebuilt themselves and the U.S. was unaffected. In the east, this savage conflict of atrocities destroyed all the belligerents: the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires. Berlin ended the eastern front hostilities prematurely at Brest-Litovsk, having covertly financed and promoted the Bolshevik Revolution. This unleashed a "rainbow of death" with the Red Army using famine, poison gas, and concentration camps against the Green, Blue, and Black armies. This remarkable story of war and attrition is brought to life by personal accounts from all sides.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    256 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    The History Press
  4. Publication date
    December 1, 2014
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0752493582
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0752493589
  8. See all details
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About the Author

Douglas Boyd was an RAF Russian linguist trained in language, culture, and history.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The History Press; First Edition (December 1, 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0752493582
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0752493589
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 46 ratings

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Douglas Boyd

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
46 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Robert L. Hurt
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2015
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Excellent book. Very well written.
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Scott Bailey
5.0 out of 5 stars book is well written and easy to follow along with
Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2016
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The other First World War describes the action on the eastern front in WW2; book is well written and easy to follow along with. Much detail is provided on the battle on the eastern front including the Austrian Hungarian army contributions. The most interest portion to me was the fall of the Russian empire at the end of WW1. The descriptive action in this book makes it worth the read. Easy read and enjoyable
One person found this helpful
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W. C. HAKE
3.0 out of 5 stars Not a first in History Telling.
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2015
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I just finished reading this work by Douglas Boyd. It's on the short side at some 247 pages. There is a fair selection of photos located in the center of the book. As an overview of the subject, the author gets the job done with plenty of facts. All his sources aren't listed in the back, but there are footnotes at each chapters end. For the most part, the author just tells you about what happened, without elaborating. This style does not make history come alive for the reader, one just proceeds in lock step from one event to the next. The only real descriptive prose here is from excerpts of diaries, reports or letters from various participants or observers.
I found that type of prose somewhat boring, but still worth the effort. The maps are mostly crude drawings that resemble grade school effort, and much more detail would have helped. Also, western readers should have a good atlas handy to orient themselves on various fronts and towns mentioned in the text. I would also have appreciated some diagrams indicating units placement and general movement over terrain discussed in relation to battles or actions taken by the many armies involved. Without this, I found it hard to picture what was being presented by the author. A very brief discription of the allied intervention and Russian civil war at books end is included. The author makes his point strongly at the end (if not convincingly) that interventions never work and are not ever justified. I would say this is worthwhile as an overview on the subject, but it leaves a lot unmentioned on the table to qualify as a thorough study.
10 people found this helpful
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Robert A. Lynn
4.0 out of 5 stars THE OTHER FIRST WORLD WAR: THE BLOOD-SOAKED RUSSIAN FRONTS ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2016
THE OTHER FIRST WORLD WAR: THE BLOOD-SOAKED RUSSIAN FRONTS, 1914-1922
DOUGLAS BOYD
THE HISTORY PRESS, 2014
HARDCOVER, $34.95, 296 PAGES, PHOTOGRAPHS, ABBREVIATIONS, MAPS, NOTES, SOURCES, INDEX

The Eastern Front covered a far larger area, stretching at times for over 1,000 miles, basically north-to-south and hundreds of miles east-to-west. A solid trench similar to the Western Front never materialized because neither side had the manpower to cover such a distance in depth. This resulted in more a war of maneuver, whereby attackers might penetrate 50 or 60 miles before being stopped. While the Western Front has been the focus for many historians, the colossal clashes in the East could be argued to have had the greater impact on 20th Century history. The Eastern Front was longer, with German and Austro-Hungarian forces lined up against Imperial Russia and its allies such as Serbia along a front of almost 1,000 miles from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

Unsurprisingly, the weather was to play an important part in the war on the Eastern Front. The severity of the winters and the incredible mud generated by the thaws limited the campaigning season to the period May-October. As stated above, the sheer scale of the Russian Front dominated the thinking of the Central Powers, as they didn't wish to repeat Napoleon's failure by advancing too far into Imperial Russia. The plains of Poland ended at the Carpathian Mountains to the south, providing a natural defense for Austria-Hungary. To the east of the Carpathians, lay the endless steppes of the Ukraine and the almost impassable Pripyat Marshes. Russia's Baltic provinces, bordering East Prussia, were scantily developed, flat and largely featureless, but provided the shortest route to the capital Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg), and the bases of the Baltic Fleet.

THE OTHER FIRST WORLD WAR: THE BLOOD-SOAKED RUSSIAN FRONTS, 1914-1922 superbly depicts the years of brutal combat in all their complexity. The book brings to life the men who fought on the Russian Front in an accurate and precise detailed history that is both highly readable and valuable. There are some mistakes with the photographs though and they are listed below:

*Photograph 4-That is a photograph of Kaiser Wilhelm II not Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
*Photograph 7-That is a photograph of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife Augusta Victoria "Dona" Schleswig-Holstein-Augustenburg not Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Countess Sophie Chotek.
*Page 35-That is a Mark V Composite Tank, No. 9186 Audacious being inspected by General Sidorin, Commander of the Don Cossacks, in South Russia in the Summer, 1919.

Lt. Colonel Robert A. Lynn, Florida Guard
Orlando, Florida
One person found this helpful
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Richard Kelly
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2016
Great Book
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P.N. Guin
1.0 out of 5 stars Awful.
Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2022
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Poor writing, weak research throughout. Repeats the long-discredited tale of Rennenkampf and Samsonov duking it out at a train station in Mukden in 1905. Never happened (for one thing, Rennenkampf had a head wound and couldn't walk).
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Dumasclub Man
3.0 out of 5 stars Brief Survey
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2015
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Well written but incomplete analysis of Russia's involvement in WW1. The first part of the book is a short detailed analysis of the Austrian-Hungary-Serbian front. I found this to be a bit of a distraction from the main premise of the book. The second part is the history of the Russo-German war, which uses a lot eye witness accounts, especially from a British Colonel Knox, as such the book suffers from the all too unique English view of the war. The third portion, the smallest, is a brief distorted view of the Russian Revolution. The book tries to tell too much in such a little text. Too much influence is given to Knox, almost as if this was at first a biography of the English colonel. The book is unfocused and needed to be tightened up. Not a bad book for a brief survey of Russia in WW1 but disjointed and not historically varied in sources.
24 people found this helpful
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James Lautermilch
3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Starter Book on the Subject
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2015
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Although I felt this book was well written, it was no where near as technical or comprehensive as I would have liked. The information was nothing that I have not found in other books that have recently come out on the subject of the eastern front in world war I. As a more simple overview of the fighting it has it's merits, and for many it would be a good starter book on the subject to get someone interested in the subject matter and from there want to to find out more about the eastern front on a more in depth analysis. It's not that I was disappointed I just was expecting more.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Tony
4.0 out of 5 stars Le front de l'est...de 1914 à 1922
Reviewed in France on August 15, 2022
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Rien en langue française sur le sujet, voici un ouvrage qui retrace en une seule perspective les tensions puis le début de la première guerre mondiale dans les Balkans, l'affrontement entre les trois impérialismes (Russie tsariste, Allemagne et Autriche-Hongrie) et enfin la guerre civile russe jusqu'en 1922.
On reste un peu sur sa faim tant le sujet est vaste alors que balayé en 272 pages seulement, et l'articulation entre certaines parties est totalement absente...on passe par exemple de la brillante offensive Brusilov de 1916 à la révolution de 1917 sans transition aucune.
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Ken in Sask
5.0 out of 5 stars There is a lot of information about the western front ...
Reviewed in Canada on December 12, 2014
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There is a lot of information about the western front in WWI and very little about the eastern front. This book goes a long way, if briefly, toward filling that gap. There are also many books about the Russian revolution and civil war, but very little about how the revolution was felt and reacted to by front line troops and this book also discusses that period.
2 people found this helpful
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Mieczyslaw Kasprzyk
4.0 out of 5 stars A super introduction to a war so few know anything about.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2014
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Everyone knows about the First World War, it was fought in the trenches on the Marne and the Somme, at Verdun, Ypres and Passchendaele. The fact that something happened in the East of Europe is almost ignored. Sometimes you hear about the Italian Front, obviously Gallipoli and, even more obviously, the Russian Revolution. Tannenberg might be the only battle most people might be remotely aware of.
My grandfather fought as part of the Austrian Army in the First World War. Some of my uncles died in it. They were on opposite sides (I think). There were fierce battles around the towns of Łapanów (where my grandmother lived) and Limanowa. There is, I believe, a huge cemetery at Limonowa. I have always been fascinated by the Eastern Front but there is so little literature on it and trying to get hold of an easy introduction to it is well nigh impossible - until now.
"The Other First World War: The Blood-Soaked Eastern Front" is exactly what one needs - an easy introduction that can act as a jumping-off point to understanding the brutal face of war in the East. It looks at the Serbian and Bulgarian Fronts, briefly at the European Turkish Fronts, and, of course, the Russian Front. This was no easy war. Conditions were often atrocious (being fought on plains and in swamps, mountains and forests; the loss of life was almost as great as in the West. Atrocious conditions, poor supply, incompetence and heroism.
On the Russian Front things started off very badly. Russian arms production figures were laughable and as a result they relied heavily on support from their allies and were in the unenviable position of having to fight campaigns, whether conditions were right or not, as a military distraction (so that the Western Allies could fight their campaigns at Verdun and on the Somme, for example, without concern for German reinforcement). There were times I was amazed that the Germans didn't just march through, things were that bad, but then Brusilov's stunning offensive shows what the Russians were also capable of doing and how the story could have been very different if not for nepotism and class differences.
It really IS surprising that we hear so little about the Serbian and Bulgarian campaigns since so many British and other Western forces fought and died there. Many of these forces went on to be involved in the fighting against the Reds at Archangel, in the Caucasus and Siberia yet we hear so little of this.
My major disappointment with the book was the lack of appropriate maps. Whilst there are some, these did not identify battles and fronts mentioned in the text so that one ended up struggling to visualise what exactly happened, and where. There was also one chapter, on air power, that seemed to be thrown in without really explaining how it was used and so on. This minor criticism aside, I really do recommend this book. Reading this fascinating introduction has really whetted my appetite. I want to read more!
23 people found this helpful
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Bebmeister
3.0 out of 5 stars Interlocks Russia`s First World War, the 1917 Revolutions and the Russian Civil War
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2017
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This is an accessible and unusual book. It is unusual because I have not come across another overview book of its type that interlocks Russia`s experience of the First World War, the Revolutions of 1917 and subsequent Civil War of 1918 - 1922. For those people looking for knowledge of Russia`s combat history in the First World War, not only do you get this here (including the Caucasus Front), but you also get a chapter on the 1917 Revolutions, as well as a chapter on the 1918 - 1922 Civil War, explaining the book`s sub-title "The Blood-Soaked Russian Fronts 1914 - 1922".
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ANDREW STEVEN
5.0 out of 5 stars nice read and well worth it covers the subject in ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2014
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nice read and well worth it covers the subject in a simple way but non the less an anjoyable read on a very complecated subject
3 people found this helpful
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