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The Red Army in Civil War -- The Red Army in consolidation -- Reorganization and crisis in the Red Army -- The Red Army and the Bolshevik Party, 1930-1936 -- The military purge -- The expansion of the military purge and the mass operations

"Whitewood's study give us the most suggestive solution that we have to date to the mystery of [Stalin's] decimation of his military."-The Historian "In addition to advancing a new interpretation of the military purge, the book serves as a valuable introduction to the dynamics of purge and terror beyond the armed forces. Anybody interested in Soviet civil-military relations between the Revolution and the Second World War will learn a great deal from reading this meticulously researched study."--Journal of Military History "In his sweeping new history of the Red Army, Whitewood rejects the simplistic, but popular idea that Stalin purged the military in order to consolidate his own power. Rather, he sets the execution of Tukhachevskii, and other officers and the the purge of the army within a long and troubled relationship between the army and the state."--Russian Review "Based on archival research and cogently argued, Whitewood makes a strong case for the military purge to be the genesis of the purge of wider Soviet society,"--Canadian Slavonic Papers "This work is destined to become the most definitive source concerning the military purges for generations to come. Essential."--Choice "An intriguing and well-argued case."--Journal of Slavic Military Studies "Peter Whitewood's well-researched book explores the origins of the suspicion that party officials had about career officers, the "military specialists" the Red Army had desperately needed in the wake of the October Revolution."--NYMAS Review.

Nationalities in a Class War: «Foreign» Soldiers in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War This article examines Bolshevik attitudes towards the «foreign» soldiers who served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. It focuses on the treatment of non-Russian soldiers from Europe and Asia, as well as the national minorities of the former Russian Empire, by the Bolshevik Party elite, the Red Army leadership and the political police. It concludes that while «foreign» soldiers were recognised for bringing professionalism to the newly formed and disorganised Red Army, these troops were never properly integrated into the ranks, even though class position assumed greater significance than nationality during the Russian Civil War. The soldiers continued to be faced with the same barriers to integration that had existed under the Russian Imperial Regime. Finally, the article argues that the Bolsheviks' early experience of using «foreign» soldiers in the Red Army influenced the evolution of Soviet national policy and played a part in the shift towards Russification under Iosef Stalin.