The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd by Alexander Rabinowitch (review)

Abstract

564 SEER, 88, 3, JULY 20IO chronicle of their lives but one in which their opinions, and even their personalities, could be better defined and analysed. Also, focusing on two sisters is slighdy artificial leaving rather unclear borders. In particular, it becomes difficult to treatNadezhda Krupskaia properly in that she functioned verymuch as a third sisterand deserves to be treated as such. At times she is included, at others, ignored especially in the account of her lifeafterLenin, a timewhen she and Maria and Anna had a great deal in common. All three had a more practical, immediate, person-based view of the revolution that would have helped smooth the jagged edges of themore abstract formulations not only of the post-Lenin leadership but also ofLenin himself.All threewere increasingly alienated from the Stalinist turn of events and were treatedwith great suspicion by thenew leaders, fearful that theirprestige could make them embarrassing critics of the new line. However, the authorities need hardly have worried. All three were sufficiendyBolshevik to keep their criticisms within limits and were capable of themost abject deference to the existing line. Indeed, Turton's account ofMaria in 1929/30 trying to get herself reinstated in thePravda team she so loved to be part of is very illustrative of Bolshevik subjugation of the self.The account of the atmosphere of the time among the elite also shows a limited degree of openness for criticism thatwas soon to be much more ruthlessly confined. Finally, it takes nearly half the book to reach 1917 and major events like the 1905 revolution raise barely a ripple in the evenness of the narrative but one would likemore engagement with some issues.Of what value was all thepre-1917 activity?Did itcontribute to the collapse of tsarism?Deeper analysis of the sisters' views and principles would have been welcome. This iswithout doubt an excellent book and is certainly the starting point for anyone wanting to know about the broader Ulyanov family. Department of History Universityof Warwick Christopher Read Rabinowitch, Alexander. The Bolshevih inPower: The First Tear ofSovietRule in Petrograd. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2007. ixx + 494 pp. Map. Illustrations. Notes. Selected bibliography. Index. $21.95 (paperback). The period covered by The Bolshemh inPower is a crucial one, because 1918 was themake or break year for theBolshevik regime. Itwas the one inwhich the Constituent Assembly met and was dissolved, the Peace of Brest-Litovsk was signed, and the alliance between the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist Revolutionaries was brought to an end. It was the year inwhich the one party rule of the Bolsheviks was established, and inmany respects itwas the year inwhich the foundations of the Soviet regime were laid. Rabinowitch has made his task more manageable by concentrating on Petrograd, so that although the Soviet capital moved toMoscow early in the year, the narrative remains focused on Petrograd. This by itselfprovides an important perspective on the early days of Soviet rule inRussia. Lenin was REVIEWS 565 convinced that Petrograd, or the Petrograd Workers' Commune, as itwas then styled,was doomed to be overrun by the Germans, and as a result he starved it of resources and requisitioned its personnel for operations in Moscow and other parts of Russia. Nevertheless, Petrograd seems to have been ratherwell run and been more inclined to avoid the excesses of theRed Terror that were prevalent inMoscow. The events which Rabinowitch deals with in thisbook are not unfamiliar. They have been recounted invarious general histories and monograph works which cover the period. What Rabinowitch brings that is new is a wealth of detail which enlarges considerably on the fund of knowledge available to previous writers. He has drawn upon archival sources and the contemporary press to reconstructwith a high degree of precision how events unfolded and how they related to each other. This makes possible a fresh interpretation of the firstyear of Bolshevik rule, one which reveals that therewas nothing inevitable about the triumph of Lenin's policies; that other outcomes were possible, and that often the attitudes of the worker rank and file proved decisive. A casualty ofRabinowitch's account is the conception that the Bolsheviks seized power in 1917with the intention of establishing a...