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The Bolsheviks #3
The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd
A major contribution to the historiography of the world in the 20th century, The Bolsheviks in Power focuses on the fateful first year of Soviet rule in Petrograd. It examines events that profoundly shaped the Soviet political system that endured through most of the 20th century. Drawing largely from previously inaccessible Soviet archives, it demolishes standard interpretations of the origins of Soviet authoritarianism by demonstrating that the Soviet system evolved ad hoc as the Bolsheviks struggled to retain political power amid spiraling political, social, economic, and military crises. The book covers issues such as the rapid fall of influential moderate Bolsheviks, the formation of the dreaded Cheka, the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Red Terror, the national government's flight to Moscow, and the subsequent rivalry between Russia's new and old capitals.
520 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 2007
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478 people want to read
About the author
Alexander Rabinowitch
8 books21 followersAlexander Rabinowitch (born 30 August 1934) is an American historian and Professor Emeritus of History at the Indiana University, Bloomington, where he taught from 1968 until 1999, and Affiliated Research Scholar at the St. Petersburg Institute of History, Russian Academy of Sciences, since 2013. He is recognized internationally as a leading expert on the Bolsheviks, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Russian Civil War.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 12, 2015
You don't have to agree with the authors politics to understand that this is an important work on many levels. For those trying to figure out how a totalitarian brand of State Capitalism came about in the Soviet Union (beyond the superficial tripe usually presented), and more Importantly for Marxists and anarchists looking for ways to ensure it does not happen again this is a book well worth reading.
I should list the "negatives."
1. The question about what went "wrong" is only partially answered. There is obviously much more to this then circumstances.
2. The book lacks almost totally any discussion of theory, be it Bolshevik, SR, etc. we hear Lenin, for example, did this or that, but we don't hear how this or that fits into his entire theory...and how his actions are reflective of this.
3. We do not hear much of anything from workers themselves...or peasants. They are presented merely as forces acted upon rather than as real subjects in history. As an autonomous Marxist who believes class struggle is driven by the multitude, the class, workers...treating them as basically puppets of this Party or that Party, I find a huge error.
Still, the accumulation of information from recently opened archives presented in this book is alone enough to make it important.
Having read this book, I now intend to go back and read his previous two offerings in this series.
I should list the "negatives."
1. The question about what went "wrong" is only partially answered. There is obviously much more to this then circumstances.
2. The book lacks almost totally any discussion of theory, be it Bolshevik, SR, etc. we hear Lenin, for example, did this or that, but we don't hear how this or that fits into his entire theory...and how his actions are reflective of this.
3. We do not hear much of anything from workers themselves...or peasants. They are presented merely as forces acted upon rather than as real subjects in history. As an autonomous Marxist who believes class struggle is driven by the multitude, the class, workers...treating them as basically puppets of this Party or that Party, I find a huge error.
Still, the accumulation of information from recently opened archives presented in this book is alone enough to make it important.
Having read this book, I now intend to go back and read his previous two offerings in this series.
August 8, 2013
Explains in a detailed way the politics of Bolsheviks vis-a-vis other revolutionary and counterrevolutionary parties and how the initial soviet democracy transformed to a one-party dictatorship by the Bolsheviks.
I missed the viewpoint of the working class (though EAD and related worker disturbances are mentioned) since the book focuses mostly on the political arenas of the time.
I missed the viewpoint of the working class (though EAD and related worker disturbances are mentioned) since the book focuses mostly on the political arenas of the time.
October 10, 2012
Als im Oktober 1917 die russische Revolution über alles hinwegfegt, was den Alltag der Menschen im größten Land der Erde ausmachte, waren ihre Institutionen beinahe vollständig der Wut der Massen ausgesetzt. Nur wenige, davor bereits durchgesetzte, Einrichtungen überlebten.
Nachdem der Staub sich aber gelegt hatte, erkannte man schnell, dass die "sozialistische Revolution", mit ihren Sowjets, roten Flaggen und jeder Menge Hoffnung, sich einer Vielzahl anderer Probleme zu stellen hatte, als "nur" dem Feind im eigenen Land: Die Deutschen waren bereits tief in das Territorium der jungen Republik vorgedrungen und schienen mit den Hufen zu scharren. Großer Hunger, den geplagten Arbeitern ohnehin kein Fremder, warf seinen (gar nicht so langen) Schatten voraus und kündigte weitere Schwierigkeiten für die Partei um Lenin und Trotzki an, die das Land zu dieser Zeit bereits anführten.
Rechts - Links. Die Menge war zerrissen zwischen Ideologien und deren Sub-Richtungen. So kämpften neben und mit den Bolschewiki, der Partei Lenins, die Linkskommunisten und linken Sozialrevolutionäre, nachdem die "gemäßigten Kräfte" - in diesen Tagen, so erschließt sich recht schnell, tatsächlich fehl am Platz - bereits ausgeschaltet waren.
Aleksandr Rabinovic, der als Erster die geöffneten russischen Staatsarchive in den 1990ern durchforsten durfte, hat mit "Die Sowjetmacht" ein einzigartiges Fenster zu diesen fernen Tagen geschaffen, durch das der Leser in die Lage versetzt wird die verwirrenden Ereignisse, die im Minutentakt über die gebeutelte Gesellschaft der sowjetischen Republik hereinbrachen, mitzuerleben. Der große Detailreichtum macht es, zumindest gelegentlich, unmöglich sich die vielen Namen zu merken, doch dieses Risiko einzugehen lohnt sich.
Was wir aus dem ersten Jahr nach der russischen Revolution lernen können, liegt auf der Hand: Eine neue Gesellschaft gründet sich nicht über Nacht. Solche Veränderungen gehen langsam von statten - oftmals langsamer, als es einem lieb ist. Und manchmal verläuft diese Transformation ganz anders, als ihre Initiatoren es sich ausmalen. So spülten die Fehler und Unaufmerksamkeiten von Lenin und Trotzki letztlich Stalin an die Macht, der sie an sich riss wie den letzten Bissen Brot vor einer langen, proviantlosen Reise.
Am Ende stellen wir fest, dass diese Tage gar nicht so fern sind, wie wir immer geglaubt haben.
Nachdem der Staub sich aber gelegt hatte, erkannte man schnell, dass die "sozialistische Revolution", mit ihren Sowjets, roten Flaggen und jeder Menge Hoffnung, sich einer Vielzahl anderer Probleme zu stellen hatte, als "nur" dem Feind im eigenen Land: Die Deutschen waren bereits tief in das Territorium der jungen Republik vorgedrungen und schienen mit den Hufen zu scharren. Großer Hunger, den geplagten Arbeitern ohnehin kein Fremder, warf seinen (gar nicht so langen) Schatten voraus und kündigte weitere Schwierigkeiten für die Partei um Lenin und Trotzki an, die das Land zu dieser Zeit bereits anführten.
Rechts - Links. Die Menge war zerrissen zwischen Ideologien und deren Sub-Richtungen. So kämpften neben und mit den Bolschewiki, der Partei Lenins, die Linkskommunisten und linken Sozialrevolutionäre, nachdem die "gemäßigten Kräfte" - in diesen Tagen, so erschließt sich recht schnell, tatsächlich fehl am Platz - bereits ausgeschaltet waren.
Aleksandr Rabinovic, der als Erster die geöffneten russischen Staatsarchive in den 1990ern durchforsten durfte, hat mit "Die Sowjetmacht" ein einzigartiges Fenster zu diesen fernen Tagen geschaffen, durch das der Leser in die Lage versetzt wird die verwirrenden Ereignisse, die im Minutentakt über die gebeutelte Gesellschaft der sowjetischen Republik hereinbrachen, mitzuerleben. Der große Detailreichtum macht es, zumindest gelegentlich, unmöglich sich die vielen Namen zu merken, doch dieses Risiko einzugehen lohnt sich.
Was wir aus dem ersten Jahr nach der russischen Revolution lernen können, liegt auf der Hand: Eine neue Gesellschaft gründet sich nicht über Nacht. Solche Veränderungen gehen langsam von statten - oftmals langsamer, als es einem lieb ist. Und manchmal verläuft diese Transformation ganz anders, als ihre Initiatoren es sich ausmalen. So spülten die Fehler und Unaufmerksamkeiten von Lenin und Trotzki letztlich Stalin an die Macht, der sie an sich riss wie den letzten Bissen Brot vor einer langen, proviantlosen Reise.
Am Ende stellen wir fest, dass diese Tage gar nicht so fern sind, wie wir immer geglaubt haben.
June 14, 2020
Written by a respected American historian of the Russian revolution and early soviet period, this book kind of completes a trilogy about the Bolshevik ascension to power that started with the author's study of the failed July 1917 coup (Prelude to Revolution) and continued with his study of the October revolution (The Bolsheviks Come To Power). This volume, the first to benefit from the opening of the soviet archives in the 1990s, is devoted to the study of the Petrograd (St. Petersburg) Bolsheviks in the first year after October 1917. This early period of soviet rule (1917-1918) saw truly revolutionary changes in Russia, and in Petrograd in particular, and in this very interesting study we can read about them in a masterful way: the dissent within the Bolsheviks, the election to, and the dismissal of, the Constituent Assembly, the separate peace with Germany and the Brest-Litovsk treaty that precipitated the end of the coalition government with the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and the inauguration of the Bolshevik one-party rule that would remain in force for more than seventy years, until the downfall of the soviet regime, and also the catastrophic domestic social, economic, political, and military situation, in Petrograd and in the country, in the Spring and Summer of 1918, that led to the proclamation of the Red Terror, the onset of the civil war, the formation and early development of the Cheka. All these momentous events are seen from the perspective of a city that lost its capital status to Moscow and whose dire economical and social conditions led to a growing disenchantment of the workers with the Bolshviks, resulting in the formation of independent political bodies, and the increasing depopulation of the city. The attempts of the Bolshviks to remain in power at the various levels of decision making (from factory committees and trade unions to city, local, and national government) in face of mounting difficulties and opposition lead very quickly to the dismissal of all democratic mechanisms and to the concomitant increase in the repression apparatus that would be one of the soviet regime staples. Rabinowitch's new book is an important contribution to our understanding of these turbulent times.
April 13, 2015
A strong history. Particularly interesting to read about the relationship between the Bolsheviks and Left Socialist Revolutionaries. Contrary to popular wisdom Russia was not immediately a one-party state after the October Revolution. A relatively healthy multiparty system existed until July 1918.
My major complaint is that unlike in his previous book, the Bolsheviks Come to Power, Rabinowitch makes very little effort to understand Lenin and Trotsky's motivations. The effect is relatively jarring - in BCP Lenin and Trotsky appear as strong defenders of democracy, but in this book they return as conniving, incipient authoritarians.
My major complaint is that unlike in his previous book, the Bolsheviks Come to Power, Rabinowitch makes very little effort to understand Lenin and Trotsky's motivations. The effect is relatively jarring - in BCP Lenin and Trotsky appear as strong defenders of democracy, but in this book they return as conniving, incipient authoritarians.
December 28, 2024
going from Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution to this was quite the transition. Incredibly readable book for an amateur like me
December 2, 2025
Although full of facts about the rise of the Bolsheviks, there is absolutely no salient analysis in this book. It reads like a wikipedia article.
March 6, 2019
Professor Rabinowitch has written another engrossing history of the Bolshevik Party in revolution. This volume picks up seamlessly where his earlier "The Bolsheviks Come to Power" left off. For those of us who enjoyed his lucid and - at the time - groundbreaking reconstruction of 1917, this volume dealing with the revolutionary aftermath of October has been too long-awaited.
Although the writing gets dense at times, those interested in the subject will find a fascinating wealth of information on just how confused, ad hoc and improvisational were these early days of "Communist conspiracy" and "scientific socialism." Rabinowitch begins with the early negotiations between the Bolsheviks and other parties on the limits of inclusion in the new Soviet government, and concludes with the first-year anniversary of the October Revolution. Throughout the narrative his focus is on the moderate Bolshevik faction and how it was marginalized by Lenin, as well as the pressures of civil war.
Realistically, however, Rabinowitch does not idealize these moderates nor overindulge the what-ifs of historiography. In outlining the transformation of Bolsheviks "from rebels to rulers" he keeps us aware of the harsh realities of civil war that made compromise and negotiation seem suicidal. And it must be remembered that attempts by moderate anti-Bolsheviks, to promote democracy and counsel conciliation on the White side, were brushed off by rightwing army officers and Western advisors who were determined to crush Bolshevism at all costs. With the narcosis of civil war gripping all parties it's very hollow indeed to berate the Bolsheviks alone for being dictators and fanatics, or expect them to rise above these circumstances. This is Rabinowitch's conclusion and is a refreshing counterpoint to the ideologically-driven anti-Bolshevik school led by Richard Pipes and Robert Conquest.
Although the writing gets dense at times, those interested in the subject will find a fascinating wealth of information on just how confused, ad hoc and improvisational were these early days of "Communist conspiracy" and "scientific socialism." Rabinowitch begins with the early negotiations between the Bolsheviks and other parties on the limits of inclusion in the new Soviet government, and concludes with the first-year anniversary of the October Revolution. Throughout the narrative his focus is on the moderate Bolshevik faction and how it was marginalized by Lenin, as well as the pressures of civil war.
Realistically, however, Rabinowitch does not idealize these moderates nor overindulge the what-ifs of historiography. In outlining the transformation of Bolsheviks "from rebels to rulers" he keeps us aware of the harsh realities of civil war that made compromise and negotiation seem suicidal. And it must be remembered that attempts by moderate anti-Bolsheviks, to promote democracy and counsel conciliation on the White side, were brushed off by rightwing army officers and Western advisors who were determined to crush Bolshevism at all costs. With the narcosis of civil war gripping all parties it's very hollow indeed to berate the Bolsheviks alone for being dictators and fanatics, or expect them to rise above these circumstances. This is Rabinowitch's conclusion and is a refreshing counterpoint to the ideologically-driven anti-Bolshevik school led by Richard Pipes and Robert Conquest.
December 29, 2019
This is the definitive history of the Bolshevik Revolution’s first year in power in Petrograd. It is very well told, with many personal touches as it is based on both published and unpublished sources that only became available after the fall of the Soviet Union. Rabinowitch is the foremost scholar of the Prelude, Revolution, and early Soviet period. His three volumes are the bedrock of our current prevailing view of this history. If you want to understand what happened, these books are the starting point. The theme is that the Revolution happened because the program of the diverse Bolshevik Petrograd organization spoke to the vast majority of workers, soldiers, sailors, and peasants and through Lenin and Trotsky’s genius at political action, secured the seizure of power in Petrograd. Hard to argue with a man who has dedicated his life to finding the facts. I enjoyed the ride, and you will also.
November 26, 2011
A meticulously detailed study of the immediate aftermath of the Russian revolution in the city of its birth, this book does an excellent job at explaining the key challenges the Bolsheviks faced, from massive party personnel shortages to famines and an ever present threat of German occupation. The book also serves as a good explanation of how revolutionary Russia moved so quickly from relatively democratic multi-party soviets to rigged elections and the Bolshevik one-party state. My only problem with this book is that even after the soviet capital was moved to Moscow in spring 1918 the book remains focused on Petrograd. For someone wanting an understanding of the development of the revolution in 1918 generally the lack of attention to Moscow serves as a slight hindrance.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews