August 1914

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn · 1918–2008 · Russia

Originally Avgust Chetyrnadtsatogo (Russian) · translated by H.T. Willetts

Why it matters

The Russian army's catastrophic defeat at Tannenberg opens Solzhenitsyn's vast historical cycle on the empire's slide toward revolution. The first knot of The Red Wheel applies Tolstoyan panorama to a war Tolstoy never lived to see, tracing 1917's roots to 1914's first battlefield.

At a glance

A huge cast and interleaved historical-essay chapters trace one battle's causes at Tolstoyan scale.