Russia: Revolution and Counter-Revolution, 1905-1924. A View from the Communist Left

by Jock Dominie

The Russian Revolution remains a landmark event in history. For the bourgeois historians, the October Revolution is thought to be a tragedy that set back the achievements of the “democratic” February Revolution, and allowed the Bolsheviks to wreak havoc on their citizens and the world. For the Stalinists, the events of 1917 paved the way for the birth of the USSR, which they point to as a prototypical example of “socialism in one country”.

In reality, the February and October Revolutions were both part of the same proletarian revolution. The whole of 1917 was a struggle of the working class to prevent their revolution from being stolen by a series of unelected Provisional Governments. The October Revolution finally smashed the capitalist state and put power into the hands of the soviets (workers’ councils). But this world-historic achievement couldn’t last forever, if the revolution of the working class was to survive, it needed to become an international revolution. As the proletariat failed to gain power in Europe, the Bolsheviks found themselves needing to build up their own state power to defend the revolution in a civil war. When the civil war was finally over, the soviets had withered to barely anything.

The Bolsheviks, for their part, had been vital in bringing down the bourgeois Provisional Government, but by the time of the Kronstadt Revolt in March 1921, they held all the power in Russia and were about to capitulate to the peasantry via the New Economic Policy. The revolution had died and the Communist International adopted the strategy of a united front with the same Social Democrats who had been behind the murders of so many workers across Europe.

But, while the Russian Revolution failed to build an international communist society, it did not just leave a negative legacy. The revolution was the work of the proletariat, and in the workers’ councils they found an instrument to ensure the running of their own affairs. Once we have smashed the capitalist state globally, and abolished exploitation and wage labour for good, the workers’ councils will be the foundation through which the international working class will create a society based on the satisfaction of the needs of the many, rather than the accumulated wealth of a few.

Genres: History, Politics

276 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2021

Reviews

[Warszawiak1917 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much has been written about the October Revolution and Soviet Russia, but it might not even be an exaggeration to say that most of it is lies or at least ideologically-fuelled and manipulated “parts of the truth”. Jock Dominie’s Russia: Revolution and Counter-Revolution, 1905-1924 – A View from the Communist Left attempts the immense task of demystifying this history and challenging the Cold War-era myths still popularised by Stalinists, social-democrats, and free market enthusiasts alike. And it achieves this through an excellently researched study of early Soviet history: from the origins of the workers’ council (soviet) as a form of workers’ self-organisation in 1905, through the years leading up to the toppling of the tsarist regime, the initial revolutionary optimism and social progress of 1917-1918, the devastating effects of the civil war and imperialist encirclement, and finally the start of the RCP(B)’s own counter-revolution in 1921.

I’ve read articles by this author before so I knew the political analysis and attention to detail would be on point, but I wasn’t sure if the writing style would be able to hold my attention for the duration of an entire book (as that calls for a slightly different writing style). I’m glad I was wrong. The largely chronological format of the chapters makes it easy to follow, plus J.D. often foreshadows what will come next and references past events. I’m certainly no expert here, but the fact that I’m already a little familiar and interested in the subject matter surely helped keep me engaged. However, I think this fascinating work could be enjoyed and useful even for those with much less knowledge of Russia’s revolutionary history.

As the full title shows, the book does not hide its political affiliation, but this does not stop it from criticising some of the left communist tendencies written about within it. Its aim is to educate young people who are finding themselves disillusioned with capitalism and looking to learn from the lessons of the past, so this is not just some piece of agitprop. It’s an earnest and genuine examination of the events that transpired in Eastern Europe in 1905-1925. Over 230 pages of the main text are followed by a chronological guide, a reading list, extensive endnotes for each of the 16 chapters, and an index of names. You can tell this was made by someone who has carried out long, arduous, and thorough research on the topic.

Besides the occasional typo, I have only minor complaints with this book. The 1905 Revolution that spread throughout the Russian Empire is spoken of here, but not much is said about what happened in Poland and Latvia during this time – both of which were strongholds of the First Russian Revolution. This is understandable though, considering that the work’s focus is primarily on Russia proper (particularly the years 1917-1922). Another oddity is that the names of Polish revolutionaries Róża Luksemburg and Feliks Dzierżyński are anglicised (as Rosa Luxemburg and Felix Dzerzhinsky respectively) while other names feature Polish characters; however, this is standard in Anglophone historiography, so really it’s just a gripe of mine.

Overall, if you had to read only one book about the Russian revolutions, you could do much worse than this one!

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent though sometimes uneven history of the Russian Revolution. Jock is at his best when he goes into detail on analyzing groups, tendencies, as well as their legacies and how they contributed to specific events during the revolutionary period. It's also a very uncompromising account, not being shy of stating and damning the failures of the counter-revolution when they arise organically and when they are the consequences of poor decisions. My favourite chapters would be 12 and 15, dealing with Red Terror and the relation of the Bolshevik party to the working class at the tail end of the revolution. If there's anything this book is to be criticized for is that for the chapters which are more thematic than chronological, the sequence of events can get rather blurry and disorientating. Some passages are also a bit over-written, particularly when discussing debates between actors or historiography, which can make the reading a bit disorientating. Here, I have in mind Chapters 10, 11, and to some extent Chapter 14. In addition, the formatting of the book makes it a bit hard to read since the font is rather small and makes it feel like I'm scanning a printed PDF (nowhere near as bad as early 2000s Verso books however). None of this detracts from the value of the book or the interest it aroused in me to learn more about the Russian Revolution as well as the revolutionary wave period it references.

[Nathan Levin · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING

[Salim ✨]

Table of contents:

Introduction - p. 5
ch. 1: Prelude to Revolution - p. 11
ch. 2: Against Imperialist War - p. 23
ch. 3: The February Revolution - p. 36
ch. 4: Dual Power or Class War? - p. 50
ch. 5: The July Days - p. 61
ch. 6: The Kornilov Affair Mobilises the Masses - p. 70
ch. 7: The Proletariat Takes Power - p. 79
ch. 8: The "Honeymoon" of the Revolution - p. 90
ch. 9: The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - p. 102
ch. 10: Soviet Power and the Bolshevik Party - p. 111
ch. 11: Red Army and Civil War in the International Context - p. 124
ch. 12: Proletarian Justice and Red Terror in the Civil War - p. 142
ch. 13: The Road to Kronstadt - p. 158
ch. 14: Kronstadt and Beyond - p. 177
ch. 15: Revolution is an Affair of the Masses - p. 199
ch. 16: Aftermath: Party, Class and Soviets - p. 219
A Brief Chronological Guide - p. 232
Selected Reading List of Works Cited - p. 241
Endnotes - p. 245
Index of Names - p. 273

The "International Group of the Communist Left" (IGCL) wrote an article in their journal "Revolution or War" (Issue n°25) about this work. This may be interesting for those who haven't bought the book yet: https://igcl.org/Russia-Revolution-an...

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the author’s acknowledgment and openness to the fact that this study is one of the communist left. The work doesn’t shy away from making judgements and conclusions about certain aspects of 1905-1921, which I greatly admire. As opposed to a simple listing of facts while presenting as if the author has no judgement of their own.

The work has a strong opening - detailing both the broader historical scene, whilst also providing illustrative anecdotes - not a bad bibliography, some questionable citation formats (e.g. on many occasions only a hyper-link is pasted as a citation), and some typo’s. Some would say that adds charm! The latter two appear quite a bit towards the later chapters.

I would recommend this to anyone on the communist left - specifically more ICT types - who’s interested in the history of the Russian revolution but doesn’t know much about it. It’s a short, politically slanted read (duh) (it really is a *viewpoint* more than an exhaustive history), with a decent bibliography so in case you do wish to read more, you know where to look!

3/5 - not bad! I will definitely be reading some of the works listed in the bibliography!