Russia under the Bolshevik Regime 1919 - 1924 - Softcover

Pipes, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 186046338X ISBN 13: 9781860463389

Publisher: The Harvill Press, 1997

Synopsis

This is the second of two volumes covering the origins and progress of the Bolshevik Revolution. They provide a complete account of the Russian Revolution, which made a large impact on the 20th century, subjecting a large part of the Earth's population to the Communist experiment. The broad sweep of Richard Pipe's history embraces not only the political and military events, but the full conspectus of: social, industrial and agricultural change; the policing of thought, art, literature and religion; the elaboration of political philosophy; and the drive to export Communism to the West and to the Third World. The reasons for the failure of the Communist experiment become apparent in this history. The first volume, "The Russian Revolution, 1899-1919", focuses on the decay of Tsarist rule and the events leading up to the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917. This title examines the Bolshevik's fight to secure their control. By the time of Lenin's death in 1924, all the institutions of future Stalinism were in place.

About this title

Review:

"Monumental...Lucidly written, unsurpassed in detail and comprehensiveness."--The Wall Street Journal on The Russian Revolution

From the Back Cover:

Taking up the story of the Russian Revolution from 1919, this final volume of Professor Pipe's trilogy discusses the Bolsheviks' attempt to expand their authority throughout Russia and outside. He focuses on the building of the Communist state at home and, beyond the raw struggle for power, on the broader issues of cultural and religious policies. The book ends with the death of Lenin in 1924, by which time the seeds of Stalinism were well sown.

"A major work of modern history – a book that for the first time recounts the horrific saga of the Bolshevik Revolution from a morally credible perspective… It gives us in fact an immensely rich and variegated account of virtually every aspect of the fateful upheaval… About this regime 'unknown to previous history' Mr Pipes has written an avowedly 'angry' book which communicates on its every page the author's intense feelings of moral indignation and spiritual horror at the human catastrophe it describes. About time, too"
HILTON KRAMER, 'New Criterion'

"To write about the Civil War at length is very difficult, because it went on everywhere and anywhere, with innumerable actors, and I have never seen it better done… Pipes replaces E.H.Carr quite easily"
NORMAN STONE, 'The Times'

"Will enlighten and enrage (the liberal academic establishment)… The chapter on cultural policies is the best short survey of its kind"
ORLANDO FIGES, 'Guardian'

"Brilliantly researched and wonderfully readable. Myth after distorted myth falls to his axe, as he hacks his way through the jungle of misrepresentation, and it is a delight to see how effectively the task is completed… It is frankly impossible within the space of a short review to do justice to the magnitude of Pipes' achievement"
NIKOLAI TOLSTOY, 'Literary Review'

About this edition

• Publisher: The Harvill Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 186046338X
• ISBN 13: 9781860463389
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 656