ANTONY BEEVOR

The bestselling British historian and author tells the dramatic story of Russia’s revolution and civil war

You’ve mainly written about and around WWII; why the step back in time? The First World War was the “original catastrophe” of the 20th century, but the Russian Revolution and Civil War became the most influential conflict in the subsequent chain of events which leads all the way to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine today. The savagery, destruction and suffering of this civil war across the Eurasian landmass polarised political opinion in Europe, creating a vicious circle of fear and rhetoric. It is vital to understand the chain of events which have brought us to where we are today, very possibly with another Cold War division of the world with democracies facing authoritarian states led by Russia and China.

To what extent does the Russian Revolution help explain Russia’s current conflict with Ukraine? There are many connections, not least the casual savagery of the Revolution and civil war, with rape and the killing of civilians. No country has been as much a prisoner of its past as Russia and the Soviet Union. This goes all the way back to the invasion of the Mongol hordes in the 13th century, which not only made conspicuous cruelty a standard weapon of war but entrenched the paranoid fear of encirclement in the Russian mentality.

Is there a book that made you love writing? The first reasonably grown-up book I tackled at the age of eight was C.S. Forester’s The Happy Return, introducing Captain Horatio Hornblower. The pleasure it gave me surprised me with its intensity and it became my comfort reading for a number of years.

What’s the best book you’ve read? Ivan Turgenev’s 1862 novel, Fathers and Sons. The simplicity and beauty of the prose, with Turgenev’s gift to convey mood and character in just a few words, provide an object lesson for every aspiring writer.

The book you couldn’t finish? Despite several attempts, I still have not finished Marcel Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu. His beautiful, languorous sentences send me off to sleep.

A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to? Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. But I will, Oscar, I will.

The book you are most proud to have written? It is too early to say if it will be this one, or Stalingrad from 24 years ago whose unexpected success transformed my life.

What books are on your bedside table? By bedside table, I would include my Kindle, on which I read novels. When researching and writing a work of history I read only on and around my subject, but as soon as I finish I splurge on fiction. I am reading Julian Barnes’s Elizabeth Finch and catching up during car journeys on the audible version of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant. What are you writing next?

I have not yet decided, and I need a break, especially after this book which has been quite a marathon. Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 by Antony Beevor, Hachette, hardback $55