The Splintered Empires

At the beginning of 1917, the three empires fighting on the Eastern Front were reaching their breaking points, but none was closer than Russia. After the February Revolution, Russia's ability to wage war faltered and her last desperate gamble, the Kerensky Offensive, saw the final collapse of her army. This helped trigger the Bolshevik Revolution and a crippling peace, but the Central Powers had no opportunity to exploit their gains and, a year later, both the German and Austro-Hungarian empires surrendered and disintegrated. Concluding his acclaimed series on the Eastern Front in World War I, Prit Buttar comprehensively details not only these climactic events, but also the 'successor wars' that raged long after the armistice of 1918. New states rose from the ashes of empire, and war raged as German forces sought to keep them under the aegis of the Fatherland. These unresolved tensions between the former Great Powers and the new states would ultimately lead to the rise of Hitler and a new, terrible world war only two decades later.

Prit Buttar studied medicine at Oxford and London before joining the British Army as a doctor. After leaving the army, he worked as a GP, first near Bristol and then in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. He now lives in Kirkcudbright in Scotland. He is extensively involved in medical politics, at both local and national level, and served on the GPs' Committee of the British Medical Association. He appears from time to time on local and national TV and radio, speaking on a variety of medical issues. He contributes regularly to the medical press. An established expert on the Eastern Front in 20th century military history, his previous books include the critically acclaimed Battleground Prussia: The Assault on Germany's Eastern Front 1944-45 (Osprey 2010) and Between Giants: The Battle for the Baltics in World War II (Osprey 2013). The Splintered Empires:The Eastern Front 1917-21 is the last volume in his definitive four-part series on the Eastern Front in World War I.

List of Illustrations List of Maps Author's Note Chronology Dramatis Personae Introduction Chapter 1: The Road to February Chapter 2: The Fall of the Romanovs Chapter 3: The Wavering Ally Chapter 4: Austria-Hungary's Peace Initiative Chapter 5: Kerensky's Offensive Begins Chapter 6: High Tide for Revolutionary Russia Chapter 7: The Implosion of Russia Chapter 8: The Bolsheviks and Red October Chapter 9: Russia's Lowest Ebb: Brest-Litovsk Chapter 10: Romania Chapter 11: The Pygmy Wars: Finland Chapter 12: The Fall of the Hohenzollerns Chapter 13: The Fall of the Habsburgs Chapter 14: The Pygmy Wars: Estonia Chapter 15: The Pygmy Wars: Latvia Chapter 16: The Pygmy Wars: Lithuania and Poland Chapter 17: The Imperfect Peace Notes Bibliography Index