The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd
"This masterful volume... fills a gaping hole in the historiography of the Russian Tevolution and the Soviet Union.... [How was] the party's relatively open, decentralized, and democratic structure... transformed into 'the highly centralized, ultra-authoritarian Bolshevik political system' of Soviet Russia?... The details behind [Rabinowitch's] conclusive answer make up this rich, detailed, fascinating. book." —Rex A. Wade, American Historical Review"Rabinowitch has culled an astonishing amount of new information from long closed archives... a compelling narrative accessible to specialists and general readers alike." —Stephen F. Cohen, author of Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia"Rabinowitch's... reconstruction of Bolshevik politics from the first to the second October under Soviet rule gives altogether familiar events an unfamiliar and far deeper resonance.... [His] fine-grained history gives to largely foretold events a texture and complexity absent before." —Foreign Affairs"This briskly written, often riveting study of the evolution of Bolshevik authoritarianism... provides a salutary corrective to the school of historiography that views Soviet communism as totalitarian by nature." —The Atlantic, December 2008"A meticulous and fine-grained study of the first year of 'soviet rule' in Petrograd.... Rabinowitch maintains a dispassionate tone and is scrupulously measured in his judgments.... His book can justly be said to provide a definitive political history of the city during the first year of Bolshevik rule." —Steve Smith, New Left Review, August, 2008"Rabinowitch demonstrates total mastery of the rich source material; a stunning command of politics during a time of crisis, turmoil, and shifting allegiances; confident, crystal—clear prose; originality; and profound appreciation of the circumstances in which his protagonists found themselves.... His new study addresses a central question of twentieth-century Russian history: what happened to the promises of 1917? Maintaining that his earlier efforts raised as many questions as they answered, he seeks to understand how the relatively democratic and decentralized Bolshevik party became transformed into 'one of the most highly centralized, authoritarian political organizations in modern history.'" —Donald J. Raleigh, University of North Carolina"Alexander Rabinowitch’s account of the first year of Bolshevik politics is a work of outstanding merit that sets a standard rarely achieved in the genre of political history.... It is a history full of heroes, fools, and fanatics, yet recounted in a sober and nonjudgmental manner, a labor of love, over two decades in the making, the work of a skilled and devoted craftsman." —Slavic Review, Spring 2010"A significant work of historical scholarship. It will serve, for years to come, as an essential reference point for the study of the political and social aftermath of the overthrow of the bourgeois Provisional Government and the establishment of the Bolshevik regime. In contrast to so many others working in the field of Soviet studies, who have adapted themselves to the prevailing climate of intellectual dishonesty and cynicism, Professor Rabinowitch has not compromised his integrity as a scholar. He has produced an important contribution." —World Socialist Review"Thirty-one years have passed since the author's The Bolsheviks Come to Power..., the second volume in a projected trilogy on the Russian Revolution. The first two volumes documented Bolshevik success in the destruction of the Provisional Government in 1917. This third volume tells about the first year of Bolshevik power after the insurrection in October and the dispersal of the Constituent Assembly.... Rabinowitch display[s] broad control of sources... Recommended." —Choice