A Whole Empire Walking Refugees in Russia during World War I [Paperback]

... exactly the kind of innovative, wide-ranging, theoretically informed social history that the Russian field badly needs. Steven Smith, University of Essex

During World War I, millions of civilians on the eastern front, including Poles, Latvians, Jews, and Armenians as well as Russians and Ukrainians, were forcibly uprooted. This is the first book in any language to describe their experience and consider the social, political, and cultural meanings of refugeedom before and after the collapse of the tsarist empire.

Gatrell's scholarly study is based on archival and other sources and includes 72 pages of endnotes. It stresses analysis rather than narrative and reflects the influence of postmodern thinking indebted to Michel Foucault. In a useful appendix on population statistics, Gatrell suggests that the total number of refugees in Russia by mid, 1917 was more than seven million. The author is especially interested in the social identities of refugees, how they perceived themselves and were viewed by others, including military and civilian authorities. He emphasizes that few refugees were ablebodied men; one of his chapters deals with refugees and gender. He also examines the special refugee circumstances of nationalities such as the Armenians, Jews, Latvians, and Poles. Besides endnotes, the work also contains maps and interesting photographs. Recommended for academic and large public libraries. Smaller libraries should first make sure they possess Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914, 1921, ed. by Edward Acton et al. (CH, Apr'98), which contains 67 essays on a wide range of subjects, including one by Gatrell that succinctly presents many of the conclusions spelled out in greater detail in his new book. All levels.July 2000

Peter Gatrell teaches modern European history and economic history at the University of Manchester, where he is presently Professor and Head of Department. His previous books include The Tsarist Economy 1850-1917 l³Á