Was revolution inevitable? : turning points of the Russian Revolution

385 Pages·2017·2.884 MB·English

by  Brenton, Tony

Was Revolution
inevitaBle?

Was Revolution
inevitaBle?
TURNING POINTS OF THE
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
EdITEd by TONy bRENTON
3
3
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© Tony Brenton 2017
First published in Great Britain by Profile Books.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978–0–19–065891–5
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc.,
United States of America
Русский бунт, бессмысленный и беспощадный
(Russian revolt, mindless and merciless)
A. S. Pushkin

CONTENTS
A Note to the Reader ix
Chronology x
Acknowledgements xvii
Map xviii
Introduction Tony Brenton 1
1 1900–1920 Foreign intervention: The long view
Dominic Lieven 11
2 September 1911 The assassination of Stolypin
Simon Dixon 29
3 June 1914 Grigory Rasputin and the outbreak of the
First World War
Douglas Smith 48
4 March 1917 The last Tsar
Donald Crawford 66
5 April–July 1917 Enter Lenin
Sean McMeekin 91
6 August 1917 The Kornilov affair: A tragedy of errors
Richard Pipes 109
7 October 1917 The ‘harmless drunk’: Lenin and the
October insurrection
Orlando Figes 123
· CONTENTS ·
8 January 1918 The short life and early death of
Russian democracy: The Duma and the
Constituent Assembly
Tony Brenton 142
9 July 1918 Rescuing the Tsar and his family
Edvard Radzinsky 163
10 August 1918 Fanny Kaplan’s attempt to kill Lenin
Martin Sixsmith 178
11 November 1918 Sea change in the Civil War
Evan Mawdsley 200
12 March 1920 The fate of the Soviet countryside
Erik C. Landis 218
13 February 1922 The ‘Bolshevik Reformation’
Catriona Kelly 244
14 1917–1922 The rise of Leninism: The death of political
pluralism in the post-revolutionary
Bolshevik party
Richard Sakwa 262
Afterword Lenin and yesterday’s utopia
Tony Brenton 284
Notes 302
Dramatis Personae 331
Contributors 337
Index 339
A NOTE TO THE READER
Prior to February 1918 Russia still used the Julian calendar (so called
Old Style, OS) which was thirteen days behind the Gregorian calendar
(New Style, NS) to which it then switched, bringing it in line with the
West. Throughout this book dates for events in Russia are given Old
Style up to February 1918 and New Style thereafter. In case of ambigu-
ity we make clear whether OS or NS.
· ix ·