In this monumental narrative of the outbreak of World War I and the ill-fated Russian offensive into East Prussia, the author has written "a dramatically new interpretation of Russian history." From the alternating viewpoints of all involved, August 1914 reconstructs the assassination of the tsarist prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, a crucial event in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1917. Stolypin, the sole voice of reason among the advisers...