Rostov in the Russian Civil War, 1917-1920: The Key to Victory by Brian s> Murphy (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 56I Breyfogle has managed to discuss some very complex issues in a clear and accessiblemanner. It is to be highlyrecommended to studentsof both Russian expansionism and of Russian sectarianism. StMartin'sCollege JOHN SWIFT Lancaster Murphy,Brian.Rostov intheRussianCivilWar,I9I7-I920: 7The Ky to Victogy. Cass Military Studies Series. Routledge, London and New York, 2005. xvi +I96 pp. Maps. Illustrations.Notes. Appendices. Select bibliography. Index. [65.00. STUDIESof the Russian Revolution and Civil War have overwhelmingly tended to focus on higher level political and militaryaffairs.Yet a true understandingof the dynamicsof the period requiresalso a solid knowledge of attitudes and events at a lower level. Workssuch as Orlando Figes'sPeasant Russia, CivilWar:T7he Volga Countgyside inRevolution (Oxford, I989) have gone some way towardsredressingthe imbalance in the historiography,but only to a limited extent. In the case of the Civil War, the Don region is a naturaltargetfor the local historian. It was there, after all, that the Civil War began, with the Cossacks'rebellion against Bolshevikrule and the establishmentof the White Volunteer Army in late I9I7. The Don region and its primary city, Rostov, then changed hands severaltimes in the CivilWar, makingit a usefulfocusfor studiesof the varyingimpact of Red and White ruleand misrulebetween I9I7 and 1920. Peter Holquist'sMakingWar,Forging Revolution: Russia'sContinuum of Crisis (Cambridge,MA, 2002) has providedone usefulstudyin this regard.On its footstepsnow follows Brian Murphy'sRostov in theRussianCivilWar. Murphy's book is not a monograph, but a collection of documents interspersed with commentary. Murphy has taken most of the documents from fond 12 opis 3 of the Communist Party archivesin Rostov-on-Don, although selectionsfrom a number of publishedtexts are also included. The stated aim of the selectionis to 'fillout the socialbackground'to the CivilWar in Rostov, and to 'convey the daily experience of life in the streets' (p. xi). However, because the primary source is the Communist Party archives,the documents inevitably reflect the Red position much more stronglythan the White one. Historiansseekinginformationabout the Communist undergroundin Rostov in the Civil War will find much more of interest than those wishing to learn more about the attitudesand actions of the Communists'opponents, or even of the mass of the Rostov population. For this reason, the selection only partiallyfulfilsits objectiveof fillingout the social backgroundto the events of the period. The advantage of a collection of documents over a monograph is that the original words of those who actuallyparticipatedin the events describedcan bring them to life in a way second-hand reportingcannot. This is not always the case with those assembled here. The chapter on 'Daily Life, I9I8' is quite dry, for instance. By contrast,some of the materialabout the Bolshevik undergroundmakes exciting reading, and I suspect that this section will also be the most useful for historians. 562 SEER, 84, 3, JULY 2006 It is hard to determine exactly who constitutesthe target audience for the book. Some of the commentary suggeststhat Murphy assumesthat there will be readers who know little or nothing of the broader historical picture. He therefore provides context and backgroundwhich will be superfluousto specialists. There is also a mistaken effort to tap into the current 'war on terror'with cover blurbsayingthat 'thepassionateenthusiasmof these revolutionaries may give us some insight into the psychology of young men and women who are called "terrorists" today'. In fact when one reads what these men and women were doing, it went no furtherthan undergroundprinting presses. There is nothing at all relevant to contemporary terrorism.Despite these ratherill-directedeffortsto reach out to some popularmarket,this book is of ratherlimited interest,of use mostly to specialistsin the Russian Revolution and CivilWar, and above all to those wishingto gain some understanding of the dynamics of civil war at the lower levels. For such persons, Rostov in the RussianCivilWarwillprove a usefuland occasionallyquite stimulatingaddition to the existing literature. Department ofPoliticsandInternational Studies P. F. ROBINSON University ofHull Baron, Nick and Gatrell, Peter (eds).Homelands: War,Population andStatehood in Easten Europeand RussiaI9I8-I924. Anthem Studies in Population Displacement and Political Space. Anthem Press, London 2004. xviii + 267 PP. Maps. Tables. Notes. Index. f16.95 (paperback). BETWEEN i86o and I9IO, approximately40 million labourmigrantsfrom Eastern Europeanvillagesleft theirhomelandsto seekwork,wages and, eventually 'bread and butter'. This number included tens of...