Revolutionary Russia A History in Documents

by Weinberg, Robert; Bernstein, Laurie

• ISBN13: 9780195337945
• ISBN10: 0195337948
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book provides a visually-stimulating survey of revolutionary Russia, from the collapse of the autocracy in 1917 to the consolidation of the Stalinist system in the 1930s. The focus of the narrative is on how the effort to build communism in Russia affected the lives of ordinary people.The authors have collected far flung documents, photographs, posters, and objects and strung them into a narrative with introductions to each chapter and document, sidebars, and detailed photo captions. While the main text tantalizes readers with the great vision, conflict, hopes, and horrors ofthis much-mythologized part of modern history, the backmatter provides resources for further exploration. Topics include the prelude to revolution, the Bolshevik rise to power, the fate of the royal family, peasant resistance to Bolshevik policies, Stalin's "revolution from above," the GreatTerror, and a picture essay on women's liberation.

Author Biography

Robert Weinberg is Professor of History at Swarthmore College. He is the author of The Revolution of 1905 in Odessa: Blood on the Steps (1993) and Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland (1998).

Laurie Bernstein is Associate Professor of History and Director of Women's Studies at Rutgers University, Camden. She is the author of Sonia's Daughters: Prostitutes and Their Regulation in Imperial Russia (1995) and the editor of Mary Leder's My Life In Stalinist Russia: An American Woman Looks Back (2001).

Table of Contents

What is a Document?
How to Read a Document
Introduction
1. PRELUDE TO REVOLUTION
A Land of Contrasts
Revolutionary Politics
The Revolution of 1905
The Eve of War and Revolution
2. 1917: THE YEAR OF REVOLUTION
Society Becomes Radical
The Bolshevik Rise to Power
Views of the Revolution
3. THE CONSOLIDATION OF BOLSHEVIK RULE, 1918-1921
The Fate of the Royal Family
Opposition and Criticism
The Embrace of Dictatorship
Peasant Resistance and the Crisis of Kronstadt
4. THE ROAD TO SOCIALISM
The Transformation of Culture and Society
Celebrating Revolution
The Debate about NEP
5. STALIN'S REVOLUTION FROM ABOVE, 1928-1932
Beating Russia into the Twentieth Century
The War against the Peasantry and Church
The World of Five-Year Plans
6. PICTURE ESSAY: WOMEN'S LIBERATION IN THE SOVIET UNION
7. SOVIET SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN THE 1930s
The Cult of Stalin
The Revolution of Stalin
8. THE GREAT TERROR
The Gulag
Three Views of the Purges
The Trial of Bukharin
The Purges in Literature
Epilogue
Assessments of Stalin's Work
Reflection on the Soviet Experience
Timeline
Further Reading
Websites
Text Credits
Picture Credits
Index
Index