Table Of ContentRECONSIDERATIONS
ON THE
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
edited by
Ralph Carter Elwood
Carleton University
Contributors:
Barbara E. Clements George D. Jackson
Charles Duval Stanley W. Page
Herbert J. Ellison Roger Pethybridge
Andrew Ezergailis Michal Reiman
Marc Ferro Rex A. Wade
Myron W. Hedlin Allan K. Wildman
1976
Slavica Publishers, Inc.
For an up-to-date catalog of other Slavica books with price and
ordering information, write to:
Slavica Publishers, Inc.
P.O. Box 312
Cambridge, Mass. 02139
ISBN 0-89357-035-4
Copyright © 1976 by Slavica Publishers, Inc.;
all rights reserved.
Editor of Slavica Publishers, Inc.: Charles E. Gribble,
The Ohio State University, Columbus.
Text set by Eleanor Sapp.
Printed in the United States of America by
Braun-Brumfield, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106.
SELECTED PAPERS IN THE HUMANITIES FROM THE
BANFF '74
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Sponsored by
The American Association for the Advancement of
Slavic Studies
The British Universities Association of Slavists
The British National Association for Soviet and
East European Studies
The Canadian Association of Slavists
General Editor
Roger E. Kanet
University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign
GENERAL EDITOR'S FOREWORD
Roger E. Kanet
The studies published in this volume were selec
ted from those presented at the First International
Slavic Conference, held in Banff, Alberta, Canada,
September 4-7, 1974. The conference, which was atten
ded by approximately 1,500 persons, was sponsored by
the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic
Studies, the British Universities Association of Slav-
ists, the British National Association for Soviet and
East European Studies, and the Canadian Association
of Slavists. Although the sponsorship of the confer
ence was limited to the four major English-speaking
Slavic associations, attendance and participation
were much broader and included numerous scholars from
continental Western Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin Ameri
ca, and Oceania. In addition, a substantial number of
scholars from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe
participated in the deliberations of the conference.
Among the more than 250 papers presented, a rel
atively large number has been selected for publica
tion in two series of conference volumes. Papers in
the humanities are included in the series of books
being published by Slavica Publishers of Cambridge,
Massachusetts; those in the social sciences are ap
pearing in the series of volumes being published by
Praeger Publishers of New York
As general editor of both the Slavica and Prae
ger series of Banff publications, I wish to express
my sincere appreciation to all the individuals and
institutions that made the conference possible, in
cluding the numerous government and private organi
zations that provided financial assistance, the mem
bers of the International Planning Committee who pre
pared the conference, and the participants themselves.
Finally, I wish to thank the editors of the individ
ual volumes in the two series and the authors of the
essays for their major contributions.
iv
PUBLICATIONS FROM THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SLAVIC
CONFERENCE, BANFF 1974
I. Volumes in the humanities, published by Slavica
Publishers, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02139:
Reconsiderations on the Russian Revolution, edi
ted by Ralph Carter Elwood, Carleton University.
Russian and Slavic History, edited by Don Karl
Rowney, Bowling Green State University, and
G. Edward Orchard, University of Lethbridge.
Slavic Linguistics and Language Teaching, edited
by Thomas F. Magner, The Pennsylvania State
University.
Russian and Slavic Literature, edited by Richard
Freeborn, University of London, Charles A.
Ward, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and
R. R. Milner-Gulland, University of Sussex.
II. Volumes in the social sciences, published by Prae
ger Publishers, Praeger Special Studies, New
York:
Soviet Economic and Political Relations with the
Developing World, edited by Roger E. Kanet and
Donna Bahry, University of Illinois, Urbana-
Champaign.
Education and the Mass Media in the Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe, edited by Bohdan Harasymiw,
University of Calgary•
Economic Development in the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe, Volume I: Reforms, Techno
logy and Income Distribution ; Volume II:
Sectoral Analysis, both edited by Zbigniew M.
Fallenbuchl, University of Windsor.
From the Cold Wa'r^ifo Detente, edited by Peter J.
Potichnyj, McMaster-University, and Jane P.
Shapiro, Manhattenville College.
Change and Adaptation in Soviet and East European
Politics, edited by Jane P. Shapiro, Manhat
tenville College, and Peter J. Potichnyj,
McMaster University.
v
Environmental Misuse in the Soviet Union* edited
by Fred Singleton, University of Bradford.
Demographic Developments in Eastern Europe* edi
ted by Leszek Kosinski, University of Alberta.
III. Additional volumes:
"Nomads and the Slavic World," a special issue of
AEMAe Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi, 2(1975),
edited by Tibor Halasi-Kun, Columbia Universi
ty.
Russian Literature in the Age of Catherine the ,
Great: A Collection of Essays. Oxford: Willem
A. Meeuws, 1976, edited by Anthony Cross,
University of East Anglia.
Commercial and Legal Problems in East-West Trade.
Ottawa: Carleton University, Russian and East
European Center, 1976, edited by John P. Hardt,
U. S. Library of Congress.
Marxism and Religion in Eastern Europe. Dor
drecht and Boston: D. Reidel, 1976, edited by
Richard T. DeGeorge, University of Kansas, and
James P. Scanlan, The Ohio State University.
Detente and the Conference on Security and Coop
eration in Europe. Leiden: Sythoff, 1976,
edited by Louis J. Mensonides, Virginia Poly
technic Institute and State University.
CONTENTS
Preface viii
Contributors ix
Ralph Carter Elwood: introduction 1
Mi chal Reiman: Spontaneity and Planning in the
Plebian Revolution 10
Rex A. Wade: Spontaneity in the Formation of the
Workers' Militia and Red Guards, 1917 20
George Duncan Jackson: Spontaneity and the Legitimacy
of the October Revolution: The Moscow
Insurrection as a Case Study 42
Roger Pethybridge: Spontaneity and Illiteracy in 1917 81
Marc Ferro: The Birth of the Soviet Bureaucratic
System 100
Andrew Ezergailis: The Thirteenth Conference of the
Latvian Social Democrats, 1917: Bolshevik
Strategy Victorious 133
Stanley W. Page: Lenin's April Theses and the Latvian
Peasant-Soldiery 154
Allan K. Wildman: The Bolsheviks of the Twelfth Army
and Latvian Social Democracy 173
Myron W. Hedlin: Grigorii Zinoviev: The Myths of
the Defeated 184
Charles Duval: Iakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov: Founder
of the Bolshevik Party Machine 211
Barbara Evans Clements: Aleksandra Kollontai:
Libertine or Feminist? 241
Herbert J. Ellison: Stalin and His Biographers:
The Lenin-Stalin Relationship 256
Index 270
Preface
The papers that follow emanate from the International
Slavic Conference held at the Banff Centre in western
Canada during September 1974. This unique gathering,
which attracted more than a thousand delegates and guests
from around the world, was jointly sponsored by the Ameri
can Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 'the
Canadian Association of Slavists, the British National
Association for Soviet and East European Studies, and the
British Universities Association of Slavists. Three of
the conference sessions— 'Spontaneity vs. Planning in the
Revolutionary Process," "Old Bolsheviks: Myths and Real
ities," "Lenin and the Latvian Social Democrats in 1917"—
dealt with aspects of party history and particularly with
the Russian Revolutions of 1917. Eleven of the papers
presented at these sessions have been revised and in some
cases expanded for publication in this volume. To these
has been added Herbert Ellison's related paper on Stalin's
relationship with Lenin. A unique aspect of the Banff Con
ference was the participation of an eleven-man delegation
from the Soviet Union. One of its members, S. L. Titarenko
of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, provided an inter
esting critique of western scholarship on the Russian
Revolution by commenting on all of the papers delivered
at the sessions mentioned above. Regrettably, his written
comments were unavailable for publication.
The contributors to this volume would like to express
their appreciation to Robert Daniels, Albert Parry, Robert
Slusser and Bertram Wolfe, who served either as chairmen
or as discussants for these three sessions, and especially
to Roger Kanet whose work as program chairman for the con
ference and general editor for this series has done much
to ensure the success of both ventures.
All dates herein are expressed according to the Julian
Calendar ("Old Style").
Ottawa
October 1975 R.C.E.
CONTRIBUTORS
Barbara Evans Clements is Assistant Professor of History
at the University of Akron and the author of an arti
cle on Aleksandra Kollontai published in the Slavic
Review.
Charles Duval is Associate Professor of History at New
Mexico State University and the author of an article
on la. M. Sverdlov which appeared in the Slavonic
and East European Review.
Herbert J. Ellison is Professor of History and Director of
the Institute for Comparative and Foreign Area Studies
at the University of Washington. He is the author of
History of Russia.
Ralph Carter Elwood is Professor of History at Carleton
University, Ottawa. He is the author of
Russian Social Democracy in the Underground: A Study
of the RSDRP in the Ukraine'9 1907-1914 and editor of
The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party > 1898-
October 1917.
Andrew Ezergailis is Professor of History at Ithaca College
and the author of The 1917 Revolution in Latvia.
Marc Ferro is Director of Studies at the Ecole Pratique
des Hautes Etudes, Paris, and author of The February
Revolution of 1917y The Great Wary 1917-1918y etc.
Myron W. Hedlin is presently engaged in research at the
Hoover Institution. His articles on G. E. Zinoviev
have appeared in the Slavic Review and the South
Atlantic Quarterly.
/•*
George Duncan Jackson is Professor of History at Hofstra
University and the author of Comintern and Peasant in
East Europe1919-1930.
Stanley W. Page is Professor of History at City College of
New York and author of Lenin and World Revolution,
The Formation of the Baltic States3 etc.
ix
Roger Pethybridge is Director of the Centre of Russian and
East European Studies, University College, Swansea.
He has written The Social Prelude to Stalinism, The
Spread of the Russian Revolution: Essays on 19173 etc.
Michal Reiman was formerly associated with the Institute of
the History of Socialism in Prague and is now at the
University of Tubingen. He is the author of Ruskâ
revoluce, 23 unor-25 i^ejen 1917.
Rex A. Wade is Professor of History at the University of
Hawaii and author of The Russian Search for Peace:
February-October 1917.
Allan K. Wildman is Associate Professor of History at the
State University of New York, Stony Brook, and the
author of The Making of a Workers' Revolution: Russian
Social Democracy i 1891-1903.
x
