audiobook Yankel's Tavern: Jews; Liquor; and Life in the Kingdom of Poland by Glenn Dynner in History

Description

This volume offers a comprehensive and original analysis and reconceptualization of the compendium of struggles that wracked the collapsing Tsarist empire and the emergent USSR; profoundly affecting the history of the twentieth century. Indeed; the reverberations of those decade-long wars echo to the present day - not despite; but because of the collapse of the Soviet Union; which re-opened many old wounds; from the Baltic to the Caucasus. Contemporary memorializing and 'de-memorializing' of these wars; therefore form part of the book's focus; but at its heart lie the struggles between various Russian political and military forces which sought to inherit and preserve; or even expand; the territory of the tsars; overlain with examinations of the attempts of many non-Russian national and religious groups to divide the former empire. The reasons why some of the latter were successful (Poland and Finland; for example); while others (Ukraine; Georgia and the Muslim Basmachi) were not; are as much the author's concern as are explanations as to why the chief victors of the 'Russian' Civil Wars were the Bolsheviks. Tellingly; the work begins and ends with battles in Central Asia - a theatre of the 'Russian' Civil Wars that was closer to Mumbai than it was to Moscow.