Book Review: <i>Revolution and Civil War in North Russia: Karelia and the Murmansk Region, 1917-1920</i> by Alistair S. Wright WrightAlistair S., Revolution and Civil War in North Russia: Karelia and the Murmansk Region, 1917-1920, London: Bloomsbury

During the Revolution and Civil War, the Russian North was secondary to the more decisive theatres in the South and Siberia.Yet the region witnessed many of the dramatic developments of the era: the fragile establishment of Soviet power, anti-Bolshevik mobilisation supported by foreign intervention, frontline warfare, logistical breakdown, food shortages, peasant revolts, political terror and ultimately Bolshevik victory.Although the North has received sustained attention from both Russian and Anglophone scholars, Wright enriches the field even more by offering a novel and analytically fresh perspective.Drawing on unpublished documents from 12 Russian, British and American archival institutions alongside a substantial body of published sources, the book examines how local regimes confronted the 'most defining feature' (p.4) of the two regionsthe grain deficit problem.Food supply was not merely a pressing administrative concern; it functioned as a key mediator in relations between authorities and local populations and structured political decision-making.The British commitment to provision the Murmansk region encouraged the local soviet to distance itself from Bolshevik Moscow, while the eventual rationalisation of grain procurement enabled Soviet authorities in Karelia to manage the crisis and establish a stronger state-peasant relationship.By focusing on two regions peripheral to their respective centres of authority, Sovnarkom in Moscow and the White rule in Arkhangelsk, the book compares how rival regimes attempted to secure and administer subordinate entities and how local actors responded to these efforts.The structure of the book maintains a careful balance between the two regions and the warring regimes.After outlining the strategic importance and chronic food insecurity of Karelia and Murmansk in the Introduction, Chapter 1 traces the fluid political landscape from the February Revolution to the Allied landing in Murmansk in March 1918.Chapter 2 examines the diverging strategies of the local authorities in Karelia and Murmansk to address mounting food shortages.Chapters 3 and 4 follow the course of the Allied campaign against the Reds in the second half of 1918.Chapters 5 and 6 analyse Murmansk's anti-Bolshevik war effort both at the front and in the rear, while Chapters 7 and 8 turn to