A History of Twentieth-Century Russia

by Robert Service

Russia has had an extraordinary history in the twentieth century. As the first Communist society, the USSR was both an admired model and an object of fear and hatred to the rest of the world. How are we to make sense of this history? A History of Twentieth-Century Russia treats the years from 1917 to 1991 as a single period and analyzes the peculiar mixture of political, economic, and social ingredients that made up the Soviet formula. Under a succession of leaders from Lenin to Gorbachev, various methods were used to conserve and strengthen this compound. At times the emphasis was upon shaking up the ingredients, at others upon stabilization. All this occurred against a background of dictatorship, civil war, forcible industrialization, terror, world war, and the postwar arms race. Communist ideas and practices never fully pervaded the society of the USSR. Yet an impact was made and, as this book expertly documents, Russia since 1991 has encountered difficulties in completely eradicating the legacy of Communism. A History of Twentieth-Century Russia is the first work to use the mass of material that has become available in the documentary collections, memoirs, and archives over the past decade. It is an extraordinarily lucid, masterful account of the most complex and turbulent period in Russia's long history.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction, Russian History, Lenin, European History, Soviet History

688 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

This author is the British historian of modern Russia. For the British-Canadian writer of Yukon poetry, see Robert W. Service.

Robert Service is a British academic and historian of modern Russia and the Soviet Union. He is a professor of Russian history at the University of Oxford and a Fellow at St. Antony's College, Oxford.

He is the author of the highly acclaimed Lenin: A Biography, A History of Twentieth - Century Russia, Russia: Experiment with a People and Stalin: A Biography, as well as many other books on Russia's past and present. He wrote a marvelous book on communism titled Comrades Communism A World History (International Bestseller). He is married with four children.

Reviews

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

¡Finalmente he acabado de leerlo! No suelo leer no ficción y, cuando lo hago, suele ser sobre ciencia, libros o WWII. ¿Por qué entonces este libro? Mi principal motivación para leer Historia de Rusia en el siglo XX era ser capaz de no abandonar la lectura de Doctor Zhivago en cuanto empiezan a pisotearlos los caballos porque no me entero de quién está en qué bando. Y qué quiere cada bando. Y por qué hay bandos. He decidido que Doctor Zhivago no me va a superar y punto, sobre todo teniendo en cuenta que otras obras de literatura rusa que he leído me han gustado bastante.

Historia de Rusia... en sí no está mal. Robert Service cuenta todo de manera sencilla, sin imponer su tendencia política y de una manera aceptablemente entretenida. Sin embargo, se hace un poco duro de leer porque cada palabra de cada frase es importante para entender lo que viene luego, y termina siendo un poco como estudiar en lugar de leer.

[Yair Zumaeta Acero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Robert Service - historiador británico y profesor en la Universidad de Oxford- es tal vez uno de los mayores expertos occidentales en historia de Rusia. Dentro de su amplio catálogo de libros publicados se pueden encontrar las monumentales biografías de Nicolás II, Stalin, Lenin, Trotsky; así como un muy buen estudio sobre los últimos años de la Guerra Fría (The End of the Cold War: 1985-1991); y una historia muy objetiva sobre el comunismo en el mundo (Comrades: A World History of Communism). En esta oportunidad, nos corresponde reseñar uno de sus mejores y más ambiciosos trabajos históricos: Historia de Rusia en el siglo XX.

Editado en 1997 (y por lo tanto, sólo abarca hasta los últimos años de la presidencia de Borís Yeltsin sin mencionar siquiera a Putin), Historia de Rusia en el siglo XX es un libro esencial para comprender las transformaciones, embates y metamorfosis de unos de los países con la historia más convulsa del Siglo XX (comparable únicamente con China). Desde la caída del último de los zares Romanov encarnado en el incompetente Nicolás II; pasando por las revoluciones de febrero y octubre de 1917; el ascenso de los bolcheviques y de Lenin; la guerra civil rusa; los vaivenes de Rusia en la Primera Guerra Mundial; la fundación de la Unión Soviética; los años de Stalin junto con la colectivización y el "Gran Terror"; la Segunda Guerra Mundial y la derrota del ejército nazi en el frente oriental; las purgas estalinistas; los años de Jrushchov, la Guerra Fría, la "desestalinización" y las crisis con occidente; la distensión durante el gobierno de Brézhnev; los cambios de Gorbachov junto con sus políticas de "glásnost" y "perestroika"; la caída de la Unión Soviética y la formación de la Federación Rusa de Borís Yeltsin.... un sin fin de eventos que repercutieron no sólo en Rusia y en los países de la antigua Unión Soviética, sino que forjaron el desarrollo de los acontecimientos en el mundo entero a lo largo del Siglo XX; son expuestos con maestría, erudición y una prosa impecable por parte de Service, quien logra hilar de manera perfecta el curso de la historia rusa de una manera entretenida y motivante que impide al lector soltar el libro por horas y horas y que no resulta apabullante considerando la cantidad de nombres, fechas y eventos contenidos en poco menos de 600 páginas.

Un libro que resulta esencial para comprender la situación geopolítica de Rusia y sus vecinos (en especial Ucrania) en este 2023, así como el surgimiento de facciones separatistas armadas y de figuras como Vladimir Putin; un texto que encantará a los fanáticos de la historia del Siglo XX y de la Madre Rusia.

[Larsen Puch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Segundo libro que leo de Robert Service, académico e investigador de Oxford, uno de los más destacados especialistas en la materia. Hablar de historia rusa en el siglo XX es hablar de la caída del zarismo, de las revoluciones de febrero y de octubre, de la primera guerra mundial, de la guerra civil, del triunfo bolchevique, de Lenin, de Trotski y de Stalin, de la creación de la URSS, del terror estalinista, de la segunda guerra mundial, de la invasión nazi y la victoria soviética,  de la guerra fría, de la perestroika, de la caída del comunismo soviético, de la formación de la federación rusa, entre otras temáticas. El trabajo de Robert Service ha sido contundente. Fue uno de los primeros investigadores en acceder a los archivos desclasificados de la era soviética, a partir de 1991. El libro tiene un ritmo trepidante. No dan ganas de detenerse, a pesar de sus más de 500 páginas. Cada capítulo se desarrolla con lujo de detalles y comentarios sagaces y convincentes. Los hechos hablan por sí solos, pero Robert Service es capaz de establecer relaciones e interpretaciones muy acertadas para explicar, sintetizar y ponderar fenómenos complejos, multicausales y polémicos. Sin duda, gran parte del libro permite comprender la esencia del regimen soviético, aspecto fundamental de la historia rusa del siglo XX. Impacta la violencia, el terror, el sufrimiento que el pueblo ruso y otros pueblos y nacionalidades ligadas íntimamente a estos hechos históricos debieron padecer. Impresiona que el aberrante "entramado soviético" de poder haya perdurado tanto tiempo, aunque el libro desmenuza todos los factores que lo hicieron posible. Sin duda, la Historia de Rusia en el siglo XX es una obra fascinante por donde se le mire.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent primer on the USSR from it's conception to it's dissolution. Written from a right-wing standpoint, but nonetheless Service does a rather good job of not allowing his bias to affect his work, save for a few places. The only time this affects anything of historical significance is in the debate of the numbers of deaths under Stalin; his numbers seem to differ from those in the USSR archives.

[Leo]

Didn’t finish this book but I have to take it off my currently reading cuz Bonnie ate it.

Bonnie gives it 5 stars.

[Jon Trotter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book succeeded in clarifying for me how the whole Russian context in the twentieth century, and the many people who played a role in shaping it, fits together from era to era. Most of the figures underneath the top rung were new to me, and I learned a lot about personalities and complex, often dysfunctional systems that they constructed or quietly worked to sabotage.

Before reading this, I had held some views particularly about the early Soviet era that Service compellingly shows to be inaccurate. I had imagined that Lenin and his associates designed an imperfect and violent but in many ways empowering system that was pulled by Stalin into the service of dictatorship. The author demonstrates that the use of state terror and violent coercion was an integral part of Lenin's vision for the Bolshevik state. Stalin did succeed in turning the USSR into a cult of personality in a state of constant political repression, but that state was designed and birthed in political repression from the October Revolution. It wasn't a social democracy in waiting; it was a mirror image in many ways of life under the tsars.

I also had believed that Trotsky was the conscience of the communist revolution and represented a kind of lost hope, a lost plan of a more just and democratic USSR if only Stalin hadn't outmanoeuvred him and eventually murdered him. This was based on his becoming Stalin's most famous dissident and his tirades from exile against Stalin and his dictatorship. But Trotsky also believed firmly in state terror and repression, and when he founded the Red Army and afterwards he actively participated in violent repression himself. He was also, as Service demonstrates, a deeply strident, unrelenting believer in his own ideas and rightness about everything, making him a pretty insufferable character.

[Luis Fernando Rozo Gutiérrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un trabajo recopilatorio inmenso llevado al detalle que busca dibujar desde un punto de vista occidental todos los factores que colorean el mito de la Unión Soviética y su transformación mediática en Rusia. Me sitúa en las orillas del Zar, en el centro de la Revolución de Octubre y en la formación de la "Cortina de Hierro", hasta llegar al final del comienzo: Perestroika y Glasnot. Quizás me hizo falta algo de picante con la narrativa del Muro. Lo leí en Kindle, lo que permite hipersaltar a muchos significados de vocablos rusos. Sugerido. Todo esto para decir que no importa si eres comunista, socialista, individualista, marxista, leninista, derechista, izquierdista o cualquier "ista", todo se reduce a pulsiones de poder.

An immense compilation work taken to detail that seeks to draw from a Western point of view all the factors that color the myth of the Soviet Union and its media transformation in Russia. It places me on the banks of the Tsar, at the center of the October Revolution and in the formation of the "Iron Curtain", all the way to the end of the beginning: Perestroika and Glasnot. Maybe I needed some spice with the Wall narrative. I read it on Kindle, which allows hyperjumping to many Russian word meanings. suggested. All this to say that it doesn't matter if you are a communist, socialist, individualist, Marxist, Leninist, right-winger, leftist or any "ist", it all comes down to drives for power.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this to have a better sense of the history of a country that has become so important to the success, or lack thereof, of US democratic impulses. While I learned quite a lot from the book and am glad I read it, I didn't feel it was as well-written as many reviewers. Service's wording seemed, at times, to be confusing & required re-reading to understand. I also found it hard to keep up with all the political characters he names (many!). For someone who has knowledge of Russian politicians, the book is probably easier to follow. The last chapter was particularly interesting, because some of the optimistic characterizations of Russia (at the time of writing) have since then been up-ended.

[Dave Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serviceable (I didn't realize the little pun until after I wrote the word), informative and fine prose. I suppose the vast scope makes this seem rushed and the opinions presented a bit abrupt in presentation. I must disagree with only one opinion and say that I don't think the constant agitation was deliberate and systematic but rather just chaos, and mostly due to the lack of any real talent post Stalin and he was awful in every way except for killing Nazis.

[Giu Giu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let there always be sunshine,
Let there always be sky,
Let there always be mama,
Let there always be me!

[Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aunque me hubiese gustado que ahonde más en ciertos temas, el libro me gustó. El autor sabe mucho y es objetivo.

No me extraña que a la izquierda latinoamericana el bolchevismo le haya fascinado. Aunque con métodos muy violentos, los bolcheviques querían desarrollar sus naciones, y hasta cierto punto lo consiguieron. A las elites latinoamericanas, en cambio, no les ha preocupado que las islas de riqueza y privilegio estén rodeadas de un mar de pobreza y exclusión. Si esa descripción todavía es v��lida hoy, lo era mucho más en los años soviéticos.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"'Please don't try teaching me what to include and what to leave out of Marxism: eggs don't teach their hens how to lay!'" (quoting Lenin at the Tenth Conference, 127)

"The American Lend-Lease Programme supplied goods to the value of about one fifth of the USSR's gross domestic product during the fighting." (269)

"Not surprisingly the society of the USSR had turned a flinty eye upon the propagandists sent out by party organizations. Attitudes had changed a lot since Stalin had claimed that 'life is getting gayer.' An anecdote illustrates the point neatly. A young woman was seized by burly militiamen next to Lenin's Mausoleum for distributing a pamphlet of protest. The pamphlet was discovered to be full of blank pages. Asked to explain herself, the woman replied: 'Why bother writing? Everybody knows!'" (418)

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro bastante informativo que sirve para dar una idea básica de los acontecimientos del período. Dicho esto, contiene algunos errores factuales (alguno grosero, como la afirmación de que Alemania invadió Bélgica y Holanda durante la Primera Guerra Mundial) y en ocasiones las simpatías político-económicas del autor convierten su obra en un panegírico al liberalismo que opaca el contenido histórico de la misma.

[Stephen Knowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

In spite of its length this really is just a whistle stop tour. Heavy on political manoeuvring, with occasional insightful vignettes about the key players. Nevertheless this is a fascinating look at, among other things, what happens when you combine unbridled bureaucracy with abject terror. An object lesson in how the best of intentions can go so horribly wrong - and for so long.

[Isaac Jonsgaard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't realize I had already read this author. I really want to get into his biographies on Trotsky, Lenin and Stalin. This book was good, but a tough one to read through if you aren't interested in the time period.

[Kim]

Service concentrates solely on Russian History in this book. It contains a considerable amount of information in each sentence.

[Mazzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se nota que lo escribió un inglés de derechas.

[Chris Eisenhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

regime centered account, extraordinary detail, even-handed despite a Western perspective overall