Three Who Made a Revolution

by Bertram D. Wolfe

A Biographical History - Russia

Genres: History, Biography, Russia, Nonfiction, Politics, Russian History, Biography Memoir

659 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

Reviews

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my salad days, when I was red and green, this magnificent opus on the origins of the Bolshevik Revolution could be found everywhere from small town libraries to great city bookstores. Today, although its insights into the symbiotic relationship between personality and politics are still sharp the book can't help but feel dated. Wolfe met Stalin and knew Trotsky in exile in Mexico (about whom he wrote a mediocre novel, THE GREAT PRINCE DIED). Lenin he handled through his writings and the repercussions of Leninism throughout the world. The fate of these three men is most telling. Trotsky is studied, if at all, in academia while Trotskyist parties have largely self-dissolved. Lenin is still honored in the Communist world and much less so in Russia. The more we learn about the Gulag the more monstrous Stalin seems, yet his role as military commander during World War II has been rehabilitated by historians in recent years. Well worth checking out is Wolfe's own autobiography, A LIFE IN TWO CENTURIES.

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bertram D. Wolfe was one of the founding members of the American Communist Party. A lifelong long Marxist, he knew personally Leon Trotsky and had met Joe Stalin. As a student of the Russian Social Democratic Party and the Revolutions that toppled the Tsar he was a prime mover in the radio Voice of America and ran for congress as a Communist in 1928. After his political run was unsuccessful, no surprise, he ventured to the Soviet Union. When he returned to the United States, his politics had shifted and he became a vocal opponent of Marxism. He lived until 1977 dying as a supporter of Ronald Reagan.
“Three Who Made a Revolution” was his most famous and successful work. First published in 1948 it was the one of the first academic histories to detail and uncover the massive and vast whitewash of the most violent dictator of the twentieth century, Joseph Stalin. Russian history has always fascinated me and I am happy that I finally picked up this very large, detailed, albeit dated tome.
The book covers the attraction of Marxism to the Russian Intelligentsia in the late 1800’s and the conversion of Vladimir Lenin. The young Lenin became a dedicated Marxist after his elder brother was executed for an attempted assassination of Tsar Alexander III. Lenin was a tunnel-vision Socialist revolutionary who gave an intellectual and scholarly veneer to the thuggish Bolshevik Party. While he was capable of gracious and encouraging behavior towards comrades, his acid pen made clear that all those persons not devoted followers were enemies. Wolfe also introduces us to the popular but scholarly Leon Trotsky and relates in great detail his upper-middle class background in a Jewish farm family. Contrary to many of the Stalinist revisions, Trotsky and Lenin were often allies in various party struggles as well as opponents. Indeed, much of the work relates in detail the deep philosophical chasms and splits in the Russian Social Democratic Party or Marxist party of the turn of the century and the roles played by Lenin and Trotsky. If this book has one flaw it is teasing out the myriad debates between the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Jewish Bund, Narodniki, etc. etc. The point as I saw it however, was understanding these factional tiffs is the key to understanding how Joseph Stalin, a Non-Russian washerwoman’s son, terrorist and bank-robber could rise to such a position of power within a party of thinkers former aristocrats.
The book describes how the monstrous purges, famines, De-Kulakizations, collectivization and Terror of the 1930s was not an aberration of a tyrant like Stalin, but a progression of a system designed by the three revolutionaries.
Lenin saw terror as an ends to a justifiable means. While he never manned the barricades himself, or participated in as much as a bar-fight, he constantly preached a doctrine of class struggle and proletarian revolution. He saw the working class as a different spiritual being as the capitalists – more just and more giving. He thought that once the workers had a clear “class consciousness” of their oppression they would decisively seize the “modes of production” and bring about the “dictatorship of the Proletariat”. He saw nationalism, racism, religion, all isms except Marxism as tools of distraction and control. He was a utopian International Socialist, at least for the time period covered in this book.
Lenin foresaw the only way for the Proletarian Dictatorship to succeed was for a highly professional party machine to seize power and centralize all authority to coax the International Workers into seeing their common plight. He saw Stalin as the remorseless instrument in this class struggle and that is primarily how Stalin worked his way up through the party apparatus.
The book ends in 1914 at the beginning of the Great War and a few years before the Russian Revolution. While the material is dated its insights into the birth of Soviet Communism and class struggle is priceless.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revolution was much in the air while I was in scondary school. Vietnam was struggling for reunification and independence against the United States. Biafra was seeking international recognition, Czechoslovakia greater independence from the Soviet Union. The students and the unions had brought the French government to the verge of collapse. Sustained demonstrations had caused our president to drop out of the race for a second term.
This atmosphere of crisis was reflected by the world, European and Latin American history courses taught at our high school. Beyond the overview provided in the textbooks, the revolutions of the Americas, of France and of Russia were treated with especial attention as cautionary case studies.
Caution may have been the perspective of our teachers. Personally, I thought all the revolutions were fascinating and easily found in their individual stories heroes to admire: Jefferson, Paine, Marat, Trotsky etc.
Amongst the many books I read about the Russian revolution were Trotsky's own, Deutscher's generally postive three-volume biography of the aforementioned and Wolfe's more critical portrayal of him and of Lenin and Stalin.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone like me, who knew next to nothing about the context of the several Russian revolutions, Three Who Made a Revolution is an exciting biographical history that traces the contours of the decades leading up to 1917. Despite the title, the book treats mostly Lenin and his revolutionary milieu, a group of mostly bourgeois intellectuals who ostensibly committed their lives to Marxist revolutionary praxis. The many competing -- and strangely cut and dried -- Russian takes on Marxist thought provide much of the political drama. Bertram Wolfe, who founded the Communist Party of America, takes detours for Trotsky and Stalin, but the chapters on Trotsky lack depth while those on Stalin are almost entirely possessed by Wolfe's whining about Stalinist historical censorship. This is not to say that Stalin's crimes against humanity and history were not immense, but I suspect Wolfe's meandering jabs proceed more from his defenestration from the Party by Comrade Stalin than anything else. The final chapters of the book are disappointing: there are many jarring chronological jumps and repetitions of material, and the narrative weirdly culminates in Lenin's seven theses against the war without even treating 1917 itself. That said, for an easily readable and often gripping view of the Marxist movement in Russia that is untainted by later Cold War propaganda, this is your book.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really enjoyable. Wolfe's methodology, in an era of Stalin-revisionism, seems incredibly honest. As well, his prose is beautiful to read - often times history books are dry and written matter-of-factly, but Wolfe manages to inject his prose with a bit of life which made it incredibly easy to work through all 600+ pages.

The book makes me realize that, given my socialist sympathies, I unfortunately do not quite align with any of Leninism/Trotskyism/Stalinism, although Trotsky is a bit under-developed here. My own philosophy likely falls closer to the menshevik camp in that I would say that a government of the people is preferable to a government for the people, simply for reasons of stability. While surely it is easier to make drastic changes by enacting a dictatorial government as these three fellows, especially Stalin, did, the proof is in the pudding insofar as the whole system began to dissolve when the minds behind it returned to the dirt. A democratic government of the people, with sufficiently raised class consciousness, is far better able to reproduce itself and persist over time than a government that is based solely on a cult of personality surrounding someone like Stalin - it is often not so much the ideas, but the person that is bought into, and as the person goes, so does the ideas.

My major qualm with this book is the ending - Wolfe stops, rather awkwardly, at the beginning of WWI. He notes the positions taken in Russia and by socialists internationally towards the war, but does not continue to explain how the war shaped the revolution and how the views of the three changed as they came into power (although this was alluded to throughout). I would have been very okay with reading another 300-400 pages, at least through the revolution, if not to the death of Trotsky and consolidation of power in Stalin. However, I guess now I have an obvious leaping off point for my next read - a history of the revolution itself and the early USSR.

[Red Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trotsky on how school groups are reflected in political movements - "... the tale-bearers and the envious at one pole, the frank, courageous boys at the other, and the neutral, vacillating mass in the middle. These three groups never quite disappeared in the years that followed."

Trotsky believed that the worker's jubilation at the outbreak of war was not nationalism but just change from the routine.

[Sinan Öner]

American Historian Bertram D. Wolfe's "Three Who Made a Revolution: A Biographical History of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin" is one of the best books about the history of 1917 Soviet October Revolution in Russia! Bertram D. Wolfe is writing the biographical stories of three leaders of Soviet Revolution, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, in the history of Russia since 1863 Reforms. Lenin's leadership of Russian socialism develops with Plehanov in 1898, later, they founded Russia Social Democrat Worker Party, 1902 Congress of Russia Social Democrat Worker Party was one of the most important meetings in the history of 1917 Soviet October Revolution. Bertram D. Wolfe explains the division in the 1902 Congress of Russia Social Democrat Worker Party between Menshevism and Bolshevism which conditioned the political history of Russian socialism in the 20. Century. But, Bertram D. Wolfe thinks on the biographies of three leaders of 1917 Soviet October Revolution much more than the other facts, Lenin's, Trotsky's, Stalin's thoughts, actions, leaderships in the formation of Soviet Union.

[Daniel Suhajda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this painfully dull and had to re read entire passages as my mind would frequently wander. This was my first foray into this topic. This may be a good book for experts or historians but not for beginners. I will read more about Lenin, Trotsky, and especially Stalin to learn more. This book focused mostly on Lenin, but it seemed like even he was just a bit player in a huge mass of revolutionaries.

[Seth J. Vogelman · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable narrative until we get to Stalin. So much more is known today than back in the early 1950s that it was no longer a worthy read. Simon Sebag Montefiore's works are so much better, but I was glad I finally read it.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb book written by an interesting figure. If looking for an overview of all three leading figures this is the book to read. It covers events up to the outbreak of WW1.

[Tim Wilder]

More a revelation of the author and his times than of the historical events.

[Katrinka · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really detailed, well-researched, and seemingly objective discussion of events leading up to the formation of the Soviet Union, focusing on Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. My only real complaint was that the book ended very abruptly, with no warning and no "pointers" as to further developments; I double-checked to make sure that I wasn't missing pages from the book. I have an early edition of the work, though, so this problem may have been remedied.

[Angelina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was utterly fascinating, if a bit dry. And my copy, which was from the early Sixties, didn't cover at all the revolution itself, and ended on an entirely unsatisfactory discussion of the Seven Theses Against War. Still, I learned a great deal about subversive political tactics and the personal lives of Trotsky, Lenin, and Stalin. Overall, a great read.

[Steve Middendorf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the story of the revolutionary fight for democracy and escape from the tyranny of the Russian monarchy. It is a political history of Russia, and the lands that lie between it, Europe and Asia from the early 1800s to the lead-up to World War I. To see Russia, not as the "Red Peril" but as a people fighting for self determination is quite an eye opener.

[René · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great biography when covering the lives of Lenin and Trotsky, not so great when covering Stalin, this thorough historical inquiry unfortunately stops a bit short, when WWI breaks out - how power was seized, and abused, in 1917 would have nicely completed this review of the Marxist Revolution.

[Zäkämäkätäkämäkä · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written and well researched account of Lenin and Trotsky. It was if Stalin was thrown in because the author needed him, out of historical necessity, not because Stalin was really wanted aesthetically in the writing.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry and very old-school style historical writing, but very interesting nonetheless

[Steve]

my copy has fallen to bits around trotsky

[Ike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Volume I years ago. Just noticed that I had II on the shelf.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rigorous and heavily textual. From the era when men had letters: old school, literary, exegetical.

[Michael E Motto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.

[Robert Seaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a cornerstone of the best course I ever took as an undergraduate. I still have it 47 years later.

[J.]

I am by no means a scholar of the history of the Bolshevik Revolution, but it is difficult to imagine a better book about the 1917 Russian Revolution. Wolfe also persuasively argues that it was Lenin's singlemindedness, plus Kerensky's weakness, that accounts for the success of the Bolsheviks.