Soldiers, Civilians, and the Ecosystem of War in Russia, 1914-1918

FAIN: FB-51791-05

Joshua A. Sanborn
Lafayette College (Easton, PA 18042-7625)

This project studies a new social formation that emerged in Russia's war zones during World War I. Through a study of the outlooks, relationships, and practices of soldiers, civilians, and social service personnel who lived in the regions placed under martial law, it will describe a process of violent desocialization in this region that would extend to the rest of the empire in the succeeding years of revolution and civil war. Special attention will be paid to mass migration and to violent interactions between soldiers and civilians. The study will also examine the peculiar economy of front-line areas and the impact of infectious disease on both military operations and war zone society.

Associated Products

The Genesis of Russian Warlordism: Violence and Governance during the First World War and the Civil War (Article)
Title: The Genesis of Russian Warlordism: Violence and Governance during the First World War and the Civil War
Author: Joshua A. Sanborn
Abstract: The article looks at how the collapse of the tsarist regime in Russia and the civil war which followed created the conditions wherein a class of violent paramilitary entrepreneurs, usually veterans of the Great War, were able to operate almost entirely without restraint. The author terms this phenomenon 'warlordism', and shows how the rise and eventual fall of warlords was connected to the absence and restoration of state control during 1917-23. The article calls for an interpretation of violence during this period which eschews the reductive dualism of 'red' and 'white' terror in favour of an analysis which emphasises the role played by individual and largely autonomous warlords.
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://journals.cambridge.org/repo_A78VVehu
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of Contemporary History
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Military Occupation and Social Unrest: Daily Life in Russian Poland at the Start of World War I (Book Section)
Title: Military Occupation and Social Unrest: Daily Life in Russian Poland at the Start of World War I
Author: Joshua A. Sanborn
Editor: Golfo Alexopolous, Kirill Tomoff, and Julie Hessler
Abstract: This essay examines changes in social, political, and economic life in Russian Poland during the first year of World War I. The relationship between armed occupations and economic dislocation is stressed, as is the unraveling of security in the region.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://0-firstsearch.oclc.org.libcat.lafayette.edu/WebZ/FSPage?pagetype=return_frameset:sessionid=fsapp3-45138-gxjiky9f-99zje0:entitypagenum=7:0:entityframedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbvbr.bib-bvb.de%3A8991%2FF%3Ffunc%3Dservice%26doc_library%3DBVB01%26doc_number%3D
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Book Title: Writing the Stalin era : Sheila Fitzpatrick and Soviet historiography

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