The Russian Revolution
Richard Pipes
Richard Pipes’s
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
“Masterful and timely … [Pipes’s] history blends uncannily with today’s … headlines.… A brilliantly focused portrait.”
—Newsweek
“Pipes’s compellingly written account … is … a masterful culmination of his lifelong investigations of the revolutionary period.”
—Newsday
“A truly impressive piece of scholarship … A fascinating treatise, certain to become the basic research text on the subject.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“Panoramic … The first attempt in any language to offer a comprehensive study of the Russian Revolution … Pipes is not a mere communicator of facts but a philosopher examining the deeper, broader trends beneath the surface of history.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Like his illustrious predecessor among students of revolutions, Alexis de Tocqueville, Pipes has a broad, sweeping view.… An imposing achievement … His craftsmanship as a writer … serves him well.”
—
Boston Globe
“Pipes is an extremely knowledgeable and careful historian.… This is probably the best overall study of those momentous events … a good, important book.”
—
Cleveland Plain Dealer
ALSO BY RICHARD PIPES
The Formation of the Soviet Union: Communism and Nationalism, 1917–23
(1964)
Struve: Liberal on the Left, 1870–1905
(1970)
Russia under the Old Regime
(1974)
Struve: Liberal on the Right, 1905–1944
(1980)
Survival Is Not Enough
(1984)
Russia Observed
(1989)
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, DECEMBER 1991
Copyright © 1990 by Richard Pipes
Maps copyright © 1990 by Bernhard H. Wagner
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1990.
Owing to limitations of space, acknowledgment of permission to reprint previously published material will be found on this page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pipes, Richard.
The Russian Revolution/Richard Pipes.—1st Vintage Books ed.
p. cm.
Reprint. Originally published: New York: Knopf, 1990.
eISBN: 978-0-307-78857-3
1. Soviet Union—History—Revolution, 1917–1921.
2. Soviet Union—History—Nicholas II, 1894–1917. I. Title.
[DK265.P474 1991]
947.084′I—dc20 91-50008
v3.1
To the victims
CONTENTS
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
PART ONE The Agony of the Old Regime
1 1905: The Foreshock
University disturbances of 1899 as beginning of revolution
Plehve and Zubatov
outbreak of Russo-Japanese War, Plehve assassinated and replaced by Mirskii: the great Zemstvo Congress (November 1904
)
“Bloody Sunday
”
tsarism tries moderate reforms
the debacle of Tsushima and talk of a representative body
university turmoil resumes and leads to general strike
Witte advises concessions
emergence of St. Petersburg Soviet
the October Manifesto
Witte forms cabinet and represses radicals; nationwide pogroms
1905 as apogee of Russian liberalism
2 Official Russia
Patrimonialism
Nicholas and Alexandra
the bureaucracy
ministries
conservative and liberal officialdom
economic development undermines autocracy
the army
the gentry
the Orthodox church
3 Rural Russia
Household, village, and commune
land shortage
industrial workers
peasant mentality
peasant attitudes to law and property
changes in peasant mood after 1900
4 The Intelligentsia
Its European origins
sociétés de pensée
socialism as ideology of the intelligentsia
the ideal of a “new man
”
emergence of Russian intelligentsia
revolutionary movement in nineteenth century Russia
the Socialists-Revolutionaries
Russian liberals
5 The Constitutional Experiment
Monarchy and constitutionalism
the Fundamental Laws of 1906
elections to the Duma
the First Duma
Stolypin
Stolypin represses terror
his agrarian reforms
the Second Duma and the electoral law of June 3, 1907
Stolypin’s political difficulties begin
the Western zemstvo crisis
Stolypins murder
assessment of Stolypin
Russia on the eve of World War I
6 Russia at War
Strategic preparations and Russia’s readiness for war
early campaigns: East Prussia and Galicia
Russian debacle in Poland, 1915
changes in government
emergence of the Progressive Bloc and Nicholas’s assumption of high command
bringing society into limited partnership in the war effort
7 Toward the Catastrophe
Inflation
the Brusilov offensive
rise of tension in the country
food crisis
Protopopov
the liberals decide to attack
Duma sessions of November 1916
assassination of Rasputin
last days at Tsarskoe Selo
plots against the Imperial family
8 The February Revolution
Mutiny of Petrograd garrison
the Duma hesitates to claim power
emergence of Petrograd Soviet and of its Executive Committee
Duma and Soviet agree on formation of Provisional Government
Order No. 1
abdication of Nicholas II
Michael refuses the crown
early actions of Provisional Government
Soviet undermines the government
land, Constituent Assembly, and war aims
revolution spreads nationwide
ex-tsar returns to Tsarskoe Selo
extraordinary rapidity of Russia’s breakdown
PART TWO The Bolsheviks Conquer Russia
9 Lenin and the Origins of Bolshevism
Lenin’s early years
Lenin and Social Democracy
his personality
his disenchantment with Social Democracy
emergence of Bolshevism
final split with the Mensheviks
Lenin’s agrarian and nationality programs
financial affairs of the Bolshevik party
the Malinovskii episode
Zimmerwald, Kiental, and conne
ctions with enemy agents
10 The Bolshevik Bid for Power
The Bolshevik Party in early 1917
Lenin returns to Russia with German help
Lenin’s revolutionary tactics
the April 1917 Bolshevik demonstration
socialists enter Provisional Government
Bolshevik assets in the struggle for power and German subsidies
the aborted Bolshevik street action in June
Kerensky’s summer offensive
the Bolsheviks ready another assault
preparation for putsch
the events of July 3–5
the putsch suppressed: Lenin flees, Kerensky dictator
11 The October Coup
Kornilov appointed Commander in Chief
Kerensky asks Kornilov’s help in suppressing anticipated Bolshevik coup
the break between Kerensky and Kornilov
rise in Bolshevik fortunes
Lenin in hiding
Bolsheviks plan their own Congress of Soviets
Bolsheviks take over Soviet’s Military-Revolutionary Committee
the critical decision of October 10
Milrevkom initiates
coup d’état
Kerensky reacts
Bolsheviks declare Provisional Government overthrown
the Second Congress of Soviets ratifies passage of power and passes laws on peace and land
Bolshevik coup in Moscow
few aware of what had transpired
12 Building the One-Party State
Lenin’s strategy after power seizure
Lenin and Trotsky rid themselves of accountability to the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet
strike of white collar employees
the Council of People’s Commissars
accord with Left SRs and the breakup of the Peasant Congress
elections to the Constituent Assembly
decision to be rid of it
the dissolution of the Assembly
effects and implications
movement of Worker Plenipotentiaries
13 Brest-Litovsk
Bolsheviks and traditional diplomacy
German and Bolshevik approaches to talks
divisions in the Bolshevik command
initial negotiations
Trotsky at Brest
bitter divisions among Bolsheviks and the German ultimatum
Germans decide to be firm
they advance into Soviet Russia
Allied efforts to win over Bolsheviks
Moscow requests Allied help
Russians capitulate to German terms
Soviet government moves to Moscow
terms of Brest-Litovsk Treaty
first Allied landings in Russia
American reaction to Bolshevik policies
principles of Bolshevik foreign policy
14 The Revolution Internationalized
Small Western interest in Russian Revolution
foundations of Red Army laid
further talks with Allies
German embassy arrives in Moscow
Soviet embassy in Berlin and its subversive activities
the Czechoslovak rebellion
Bolsheviks adopt military conscription
Czech advances
the Kaiser decides to continue pro-Bolshevik policy
the Left SRs plot uprising
they kill Mirbach
suppression of their rebellion
Savinkovs clandestine organization
the Iaroslavl rising
Riezler fails in attempt to reorient German policy
further Allied activities on Russian soil
Bolsheviks request German intervention
Supplementary Treaty with Germany
Russians decide the Germans have lost the war
the problem of foreign “intervention
”
15 “War Communism”
Its origins and objectives
“Left Communists”plan implementation
attempts to abolish money
creation of Supreme Economic Council
decline of industrial productivity
decline of agricultural productivity
efforts to abolish the market and the growth of a shadow economy
anti-labor legislation
trade union policy
effects of War Communism
16 War on the Village
Bolsheviks view peasants as class enemy
what peasants gained in 1917–18 and at what cost
food requisition policies and hunger in the cities
campaign against the village begins, May 1918
food supply detachments meet with resistance: massive peasant revolt
“Committees of the Poor
”
assessment of the campaign
17 Murder of the Imperial Family
Russian regicide unique
the ex-tsar and family in the first months of Bolshevik rule
Ekaterinburg Bolsheviks want ex-tsar in their custody
Nicholas and Alexandra transported to Ekaterinburg
the “House of Special Designation
”
murder of Michael as trial baloon
Cheka fabricates rescue operation
decision to kill ex-tsar taken in Moscow: Cheka takes over guard duties
the murder
disposal of the remains
assassination of other members of the Imperial family at Alapaevsk
Moscow announces execution of Nicholas but not of family
implications of these events
18 The Red Terror
Lenin’s attitude toward terror
abolition of law
origins of the Cheka
Cheka’s conflict with the Commissariat of Justice
Lenin shot, August 30, 1918
background of this event and beginning of Lenin cult
“Red Terror” officially launched
mass murder of hostages
some Bolsheviks revolted by bloodbath
Cheka penetrates all Soviet institutions
Bolsheviks create concentration camps
victims of Red Terror
foreign reactions
Afterword
Glossary
Chronology
Notes
One Hundred Works on the Russian Revolution
About the Author
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Lenin, March 1919. VAAP, Moscow.
2
. Nicholas II and family shortly before outbreak of World War I. Brown Brothers.
3
. Viacheslav Plehve.
4
. Remains of Plehve’s body after terrorist attack.
5
. Prince P. D. Sviatopolk-Mirskii.
6
. Governor Fullon visits Father Gapon and his Assembly of Russian Workers.
7
. Bloody Sunday.
8
. Paul Miliukov. The Library of Congress.
9
. Sergei Witte. The Library of Congress.
10
. Crowds celebrating the proclamation of the Manifesto of October 17, 1905.
11
. After an anti-Jewish pogrom in Rostov on Don. Courtesy of Professor Abraham Ascher.
12
. Members of St. Petersburg Soviet en route to Siberian exile: 1905.
13
. The future Nicholas II as tsarevich. Courtesy of Mr. Marvin Lyons.
14
. Dancing class at Smolnyi Institute, c. 1910. Courtesy of Mr. Marvin Lyons.
15
. Russian peasants: late nineteenth century. The Library of Congress.
16
. Village assembly. Courtesy of the Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
17
. Peasants in winter clothing.
18
. Strip farming
as practiced in Central Russia, c. 1900.
19
. L. Martov and T. Dan.
20
. Ivan Goremykin.
21
. P. A. Stolypin: 1909. M. P. Bok Papers, Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University.
22
. Right-wing Duma deputies.
23
. General V. A. Sukhomlinov.
The Illustrated London News
.
24
. Nicholas II at army headquarters: September 1914.
25
. Russian prisoners of war taken by the Germans in Poland: Spring 1915. Courtesy of the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London.
26
. General A. Polivanov. VAAP, Moscow.
27
. Alexandra Fedorovna and her confidante, Anna Vyrubova.
28
. Alexander Protopopov.
29
. Rasputin with children in his Siberian village.
30
. International Women’s Day in Petrograd, February 23, 1917. VAAP, Moscow.
31
. Crowds on Znamenskii Square, Petrograd. The Library of ongress.
32
. Mutinous soldiers in Petrograd: February 1917. VAAP, Moscow.
33
. Petrograd crowds burning emblems of the Imperial regime: February 1917.
The Illustrated London News
.
34
. Arrest of a police informer. Courtesy of Mr. Marvin Lyons.
35
. Workers toppling the statue of Alexander III in Moscow (1918).
36
. Provisional Committee of the Duma. The Library of Congress.
37
. Troops of the Petrograd garrison in front of the Winter Palace.
38
. A sailor removing an officer’s epaulettes. VAAP, Moscow.
39
. K. A. Gvozdev. Slavic and Baltic Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
40
. Soldier section of the Petrograd Soviet. The Library of Congress.
41
. Executive Committee (Ispolkom) of the Petrograd Soviet. Slavic and Baltic Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
42
. Prince G. Lvov.
43
. Alexander Kerensky.
44
. N. D. Sokolov drafting Order No. 1: March 1, 1917.
45
. Political meeting at the front: Summer 1917.
Niva
, No. 19 (1917).
46
. Grand Duke Michael.
47
. Officer candidates (
The Russian Revolution Page 1