Books by Jamie Bisher
White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian
Russia's Revolution and Civil War (1917-1922) in Siberia and the Russian Far East is a long neglected subject that has often been distorted and manipulated to suit contemporary political narratives. This acclaimed book objectively examines the events that reshaped the political and cultural landscapes of the Russian Far East and neighboring lands, and the leading actors--revolutionaries, counter-revolutionaries, restive minorities, idealistic nationalists, and cavalcade of foreigners--whose blood and tears enriched the history and soil.
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The gripping story of a forgotten Russia in turmoil, when the line between government and organized crime blurred into a chaotic continuum of kleptocracy, vengeance and sadism. It tells the tale of a fugitive Cossack captain who brashly led seven cohorts into a mutinous garrison at Manchuli, a squalid bordertown on Russia's frontier with Manchuria in the last days of 1917. The garrison had gone Red, revolted against its officers, and become a dangerous, ill-disciplined mob. Cossack Captain Grigori Semenov cleverly harangued the garrison into laying down its arms and boarding a train into the Bolsheviks' tenuous territory. Through such bold action, Semenov and a handful of Cossack brethren established themselves as the warlords of Eastern Siberia and Russia's Pacific maritime provinces during the next bloody year. Like inland pirates, they menaced the Trans-Siberian Railroad with fleets of armored trains, Mongol cavalry, Eurasian mercenaries, pressgang cannon fodder and notorious sadists. They undermined Admiral Kolchak's White armies, destroyed Siberian democracy, ruthlessly liquidated all Reds, terrorized the population, sold out to the Japanese, and antagonized the American Expeditionary Force and Czech Legion in a frenzied orchestration of the Russian Empire's Götterdämmerung. Historians have long recognized that Ataman Semenov and company were a nasty lot. This book details precisely how nasty they were...
Photos, glossary, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
ISBN-13: 978-0415571340
Photos, glossary, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
ISBN-13: 978-0415571340
Book Reviews
Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Dr. Michael Parrish, 2010 - "The magnificent study by Jamie Bisher is mainly about the Cossack warlords, primarily Atamans I.P. Kalmykov, G.M. Semenov, and the more interesting Baron Ungern-Shternberg (Sternberg), but it is also a detailed history of the civil war in Siberia... The stories about these individuals are woven into a detailed mosaic in this magnificent book that should serve as the standard historical guide to the subject. This reviewer disagrees with the author's statement that the book was not intended to be a 'scholarly book,' since it fits this description most admirably."
Kritika, Dr. Willard Sunderland, 2008 - "Of the four books [reviewed] here, Jamie Bisher’s provides the broadest overview of the general landscape, focusing on the 'rule of the atamans' (atamanshchina) identified with Semenov’s power in the Trans-Baikal and the work of his partners in Mongolia, Manchuria, and the Russian Far East, in particular Ungern-Sternberg and Kalmykov."
Revolutionary Russia, Dr. Shane O'Rourke, 2011 - "Overall, this book does add to our knowledge of the [Russian] civil war, particularly to our understanding of foreign perceptions of the conflict in Siberia."
Other Recommendations
Pygmy Wars, 2010 - "For those interested in the far east, there is ‘White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian’ by Jamie Bisher, covering the exploits of Semenov mainly, but also Kalmykov and Ungern-Sternberg. Recently out in paperback, this is a ‘must buy’ if you have any interest in the theatre at all ."
Goodreads, 2016 - "This is history writing at its best. There is a mass of detailed information, with excellent footnotes, and yet it is marshalled so well that we don't feel lost in the forest. The style is both lucid and vivid."
Goodreads, 2016 - "A truly excellent book which it seems never got much circulation. Few books on this topic exist in English and no others I have seen go into such detail. Some great stuff here..."
Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Dr. Michael Parrish, 2010 - "The magnificent study by Jamie Bisher is mainly about the Cossack warlords, primarily Atamans I.P. Kalmykov, G.M. Semenov, and the more interesting Baron Ungern-Shternberg (Sternberg), but it is also a detailed history of the civil war in Siberia... The stories about these individuals are woven into a detailed mosaic in this magnificent book that should serve as the standard historical guide to the subject. This reviewer disagrees with the author's statement that the book was not intended to be a 'scholarly book,' since it fits this description most admirably."
Kritika, Dr. Willard Sunderland, 2008 - "Of the four books [reviewed] here, Jamie Bisher’s provides the broadest overview of the general landscape, focusing on the 'rule of the atamans' (atamanshchina) identified with Semenov’s power in the Trans-Baikal and the work of his partners in Mongolia, Manchuria, and the Russian Far East, in particular Ungern-Sternberg and Kalmykov."
Revolutionary Russia, Dr. Shane O'Rourke, 2011 - "Overall, this book does add to our knowledge of the [Russian] civil war, particularly to our understanding of foreign perceptions of the conflict in Siberia."
Other Recommendations
Pygmy Wars, 2010 - "For those interested in the far east, there is ‘White Terror: Cossack Warlords of the Trans-Siberian’ by Jamie Bisher, covering the exploits of Semenov mainly, but also Kalmykov and Ungern-Sternberg. Recently out in paperback, this is a ‘must buy’ if you have any interest in the theatre at all ."
Goodreads, 2016 - "This is history writing at its best. There is a mass of detailed information, with excellent footnotes, and yet it is marshalled so well that we don't feel lost in the forest. The style is both lucid and vivid."
Goodreads, 2016 - "A truly excellent book which it seems never got much circulation. Few books on this topic exist in English and no others I have seen go into such detail. Some great stuff here..."
Read about another book by Jamie Bisher, The Intelligence War in Latin America, 1914-1922
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