Why Back Of Beyond?

[Red Sveta]

I have wondered about this for a long time but why is the Russian Civil war classed as Back Of Beyond? Its as though its a semi fantasy conflict when of course it was not. It seems  not to taken quite as serious as say the SCW  which is classed as a historical period in the Inter War period. Is it just me  or should we all be looking for more historical scenarios more often?

[Anna Elizabeth]

Unless the RCW is classified this way just to give a clear separation from the Great War?

Myself, I rather like it this way, it gives me room to do what I want, and from the sources I'm starting to find, "Back of Beyond" historical is wilder than any fiction.

Other's mileage will vary, of course.

[Von Stroheim]

I do not believe we are calling the RCW - the Back of Beyond.  I always thought this concerned the Central Asian Theatre of the war.  You would need to ask Mark Copplestone where he got the idea from.   I have a copy of Fitzroy Mcleans 'To the Back of Beyond' that details his journey from the Caspian to the Chinese border taking in all the theatres that we are interested in and the various combatants - Chinese Warlords, Red and White Russians , Mongols, Basmachis, Tibetans and the arrray of foreign interventionists and characters.  All detailed in the books of Peter Hopkirk.

[FramFramson]

Yes, my understanding is that "Back of Beyond" is a geographical reference far more than it is a chronological or historical one. It concerns an area of the world which is geographically vast yet is under-studied, referenced as as a distant hinterland, if it mentioned at all in conventional history.

The period of the RCW and surrounding or related conflicts is attractive in terms of wargaming because it's... well, colourful would be a good start on describing it.

[Wirelizard]

The period of the RCW and surrounding or related conflicts is attractive in terms of wargaming because it's... well, colourful would be a good start on describing it.

Colourful is polite. I've been known to say that I'm interested in the Russian Civil War because it's bastards all the way down.

The RCW does shade over into the more fantastical Back of Beyond stuff more easily than the Spanish Civil War or WW1 do, but I think that's partly because there's so much more space to mess around in out in the open space of Russia, never mind the BoB adventures that shade off toward China, Tibet, the Indian border, or whereever.

Plus reality is frequently more colourful than fiction would usually dare to be. The Mad Baron, Cossack warlords, exiled legions on armoured trains... if you wrote it as fiction half of it would be called fantasy...

[H.M.Stanley]

I'm heavily into BoB/RCW (I consider them to be separate topics) as well as SCW.

BoB is bonkers but no less historical than the others IMHO

[redzed]

BoB is bonkers

and it's all true, which makes it even more betterer 

[area23]

Back of Beyond is anything that happened or could have happened in central asia from the end of the great war up until the 1920's, including russian white or red forces.

[dodge]

Area23 has it in a nutshell, I love it because the forces are diverse it was a very volatile period, which gives loads of scope for war games.

And it's fun

Dodge

[Atheling]

Area23 has it in a nutshell, I love it because the forces are diverse it was a very volatile period, which gives loads of scope for war games.

And it's fun

Dodge

And what would wargaming be without the fun element?

Darrell.

[Metternich]

I would think that Russian Civil War would be classified as Interwar ??

[cuprum]

Can be assessed in two ways. Red had to fight with the German army. The Allies landed in the North to avoid capture by the Germans warehouses (at least officially). Ukrainian National Army was an ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Of course this is not the first world war, but the Civil War in Russia too closely associated with this time period ...