Richard Pipes - The Russian Revolution

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.