- August 1914
Infobox Book
name = August 1914
title_orig = Август 1914
translator =
image_caption =
author =Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country =Soviet Union
language = Russian
series =The Red Wheel
subject =
genre =Historical novel
publisher =YMCA Press
release_date =1971 ;1984
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback )
pages = 573 pp; 850+ pp (Second version)
isbn =
preceded_by =
followed_by ="August 1914" is a
novel byRussia nnovel istAleksandr Solzhenitsyn aboutImperial Russia 's defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg inEast Prussia , known in Russian history as the Battle of the Masurian Lakes. The novel was completed in 1970, during Solzhenitsyn's period of exile while residing in theUnited States [ [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/solzhenitsyn-autobio.html Alexandr Solzhenitsyn - Autobiography ] ] . The novel is an unusual blend of fiction narrative andhistoriography , and has given rise to extensive and often bitter controversy, both from the literary as well as from the historical point of view.Plot
The unprepared army's failures mirror those of the
Tsar ist regime. A famous episode in the earlier version of the novel narrates the state of mind andsuicide ofGeneral Samsonov , the Russian commander.Later editions
In 1984 a new version of the novel, much expanded, was published in an English
translation by H.T. Willetts. By this time Solzhenitsyn had been a resident of theUSA for some years and was therefore able to publish chapters hitherto suppressed, as well as new parts written after extensive research at the library of theHoover Institution . These included chapters onVladimir Lenin which were published separately as "Lenin in Zurich"; several chapters dealing with Prime MinisterPyotr Stolypin , as well as with the background and personality of Stolypin's murderer,Dmitri Bogrov , and the suspected involvement of the Tsarist Secret Police in Stolypin'sassassination .eries
At well over 800 pages, the novel constitutes the beginning of the Red Wheel series, continued ten years later with "
November 1916 ".References
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