The Russian Revolution FOURTH EDITION Sheila Fitzpatrick OXFORD LINIVERSITY .PRESS Contents Acknoztiedgements v Introduction r r The Setring t6 The society 17 The revolutionary tradition 24 The r9o5 Revolution and its aftermath; the First \ùØorld SØar 32 2 r9r7. The Revolutions of Febrrary and October 4r The February Revolution and .dual power, 45 The Bolsheviks 50 The popular revolution 53 The political crises of the summer 5g The October Revolution 6z 3 The Civil War 69 The Civil War, the Red Army, and the Cheka 73 W'ar Communism 79 Visions of the new world g5 The Bolsheviks in power gg 4 NEP and the Future of the Revolution 94 The discipline of ret¡ear 97 Theproblemofbureaucracy ro3 The Ieadership struggle rog Building socialism in one courìtry rr2 vlll Contents 5 Stalin's Revolution rzr Introduction Stalin versus the Right r25 The industrial2ation drive r3r Collectivization 86 Cultu¡al Revolution r4z DunrNc US president Nixon,s r97z visit to China, rhe conversation 6 Ending the Revolution r5o turned to the French Revolution, almost two centuries earlier. I_eg_ end has it that premier Chou 'Revolution accomplished' t1z En_I_ai, o't.irrg asked to assess the revolution,s impact, answered 'Revolution betrayed' r58 ttrat it was too soon to tell. It turns out that he probably misunderstood The the question an¿ thought fre Terror t64 was being asked about trre paris events ofi96g, but it wourd have been a good answer in any case. It i" ot*og, too early to tell about the.impact of great Noæs t75 historical events, b.ã"rrr. that impact is sta¡ic but constantly not Select Biblíography r87 clanging o* o*r, pr.r..r, circumstances and vantage-point on the past ", Index change. So it is with the Russian rys Revolution, whose memory has aheãdy gone through a series of vicissitudes, and will undoubtedly g. ,h;"gh more in the future. The second edition of The nurrni n oolutio, çr99a1 appeared in the wake of dramatic svs¡¡s-ths falr of the communist regime and the dissolution of üre Soviet union art. ."ã or r99r. Those events had all sorts of consequences ", for historians of the Russian Revolu_ tion. They opened archives that -... f..rriorrsly closed, brought forth memoirs that were hidden i" ¿r"i"..r, and released a flood of new marerial of every kind, especialy oì'tne Stalin period and the history of Soviet repression. As a åsulq the r99os and early 2ooos were particularly productive for historianr, ir.l"ai"g p..r1 Soviet Russians, newly reconnected to the international scholarly community. The expanded bibliography of the third edition (t"õ reflecred this avalanche of new i"fo.-åtio.r. ño* ** the fourth edition, we have reached rhe centenarv orã. Russian Revorution. It is an obvious time for .."rr.r.-arr, Urrt in Russia oddly " there is little eagerness to embark or, ,,r.i a project. post_Soviet Russia needs a usable past as a basis for a new national identity. The problem is to work our how th. R;i";on f,ts in. Stalin can be accommodated comparatively easily as rrltiorr_U,rilder, leading Russia (the Soviet " Union) in its great vioo.y _ the Second world War and presiding over its port*"i "r..rrrãi,rpelpower starus. But z Intoductinn Introduction 3 it is not so easy for contemporary Russians to l<rrow how to ttrink towards the restoration of order about I-enin and the Bolsheviks. and stability.3 The Russian Bolshe_ viks, bearing in mind the same For Russians French n rrofrrtio., model that lies and other former Soviet citizens, the collapse of the basis at of Brinton,s analysis, feared a Thermidorian the Soviet union meant a fundamentar reappraisal degeneradon of the meaning of their own Revolution, and of the Revolurion,l previously half ,rrrp."al that one had occurred hailed as the foundational event of at the end of the Civil the world's W.ar, when .*rro*i" collapse forced 'first socialist state, and now seen by many as a wrong into the them 'strategic ,.T31' marked UV tfr.-¡"t turning that took Russia off course for seventy_four oauction of ttre New 'western yea.s. Whilã Economic policy (NEp) in r9zr. historians had less of an adjustrnent to make, theirperspec- Yet -at at the end of the r9zos, Russia plunged tive was subtly changed by rrre end of the cold war as into another *.il upheavar-starin's 'revolution fróm above" of the Soviet rJnion. The dust has yet to "r "a associated with the settle on these intellectual industrialization drive of the First pran, reconfigurations. But one thing Five-year the collectiviza- is clear: as far as the significance tion of agriculrure, and .Cultu."l of the Russian Revolution a n rroi,rio.r, ai.....J is concerned, it is still too early to teil against the old intelligentsia-whot. f;;*, definitively, and it always will i-p"lion society was grearer be as long as the Revolution conrinues even than that of the to be taken February and Ocìober Revolutions seriously as a watershed in modern European and world and the ;i;rrj Civil War of r9.rg_zo. it was only afte. history. This book sers out to tell the story of the Revolution *ris upheaval ended and in the early r93os that signs of a clarifu the issues as they were seen by participants. ñ...idor can be discerned: But the Russian the waning of revolutionary fervour"t"rri" Revolution's meaning, rike that of the French U.ììlg.r.rrce, new policies Revolution, will be aimed at restoring order and "rrJ endlessly debated. stabiliry ..rir"r of traditional varues and culrure, solidification of a new pottic"t and sociar s.'ucn',e. Yet even t'is Thermidor was q,ri* rrr. .i¿ or*r. revorutionary Timespan of the reztolution upheaval. In a final internal "ot .rr.r, *or. devastating than .earlier surges of revolutionary"orrrrolriorr, Since revolutions are complex terror, afr. Cr."a purges of t937_g social and political upheavars, his- swept away many of the torians who write about surviving Old Bolshevit ,.irol"¡ol#.r" them are bound to differ on t}le most effected a wholesare basic questions--causes, turnover of personnel wit¡in trre poritical, revolutionary aims, impact on the society, adminisuative, political and military elites, and ,.rri _o.. rhan outcome, and even the timespan of the revolution itself. In people a million to their dearhs or imprisonment in Gulag.a tåe case of the Russian Revolution, tt. ,t".tiog point presents no In deciding on a timespan for the problem: almost everyone takes it to .February . Russian Revolution, the first be the Revolution,2 issue is the nature of the .srategic *o."J.f of r9r7, which led to the abdication of Emperor Nicholas NEp in the r9zos. II and lfas it the end of the Revolrrtion] or ttre formation of the provisional Government. But ..r".t a as such? Although when did the the Bolsheviks' avowed intention in Russian Revolution end? \ü7as it all over ,9r;;;, to use r'is interlude by October r9r7 when to gather strength for a the Bolsheviks took power? late¡ r.ne*alif the revolutionary assault, or did the end of the Revolution come there was always with the Bolsheviks' the possibility ttrat intentions would victory in the civil \üØar in rgzo?'rüØas Stalin,s revolutionary change as passions subsided. Some scholars 'revolution from above'part of the Russian Revolution? think that in the last Or should years of his life, Lenin (who died rn we take the view ttrat ttre Revolution continued ry24) came ro believe that for ttrroughout the Russia further progress rowards lifetime of the Soviet state? soc¡atism could only be achieved gradually, wittr the raising of trre In his Anatomy of Rez.tolution, Crane curturar 1.".1 or úre popuration. _ Brinton suggested that revo_ Nevertheless' Russian lutions have ro.Lry ..m"io.a iigrrtyil"ail. a life cycre passing through phases of increasing fervour during and unstable and the NEp period, and .t. p"rf;r:*iod zeal for radical ûansformation until they reach a climax remained agg¡es_ intensiry of sive and revolutibnary. The Bohhåvirc which is followed by the :Thermidtrian, phase f."-J cor¡nrer_revolurion, of dis_ remained preoccupied with the threat l.l"r, illusionment, declining revolutionary energy, from .rr.*i.s, at home and gradual moves and abroad, and consrantly expressed their dissatisfaction with 4 Introduction unwilringness to accept as fE". To it the finar outcome of the Introdurtion 5 Revolution. tiTesran of the Russian Revotution A second issue trrat must be runs from considered is trre nature of starin,s 'revolution from above, rh.F.b;;;ãt"ffi".î"i',ilÏ:Tsrh.ãin;.;"'.;.ä;-".*..ff,ïrï'r.it tt"t io at. late r9zos. historians reject "na.JNËp Some interludeorr.r¡p,Stalin,s.r;";ì;;;;;li'l;Så:,li,ff the idea that att... *"r real continuiry Stalin's revolutionand "rrv berween r-enin's. otrr.* zul that stalin,s .revolurion, c,.;;;;;;_are :*: does not deserye the.name, 3J,ffi.Ji.:i*J9,r,. ûeated as discrere ,i"". ,t.v l-.ì¡"rr. it was not a popular uprising but something more like twenryyears,**rïr-Jiillål::ä$":î."tåî"årl"*:n::äj; on tfie society by a ruling party aiming at radical "" "rr".rft was exhauste4 andeven o".rrfor*"ion. In this boo\ I trace ,1. *;;g ð;ää,rrrirt p"rty6 continuity between upheaval and was dred of li*. f.":rrt f.i.l"rion and Stalin,s.