Orlando Figes - A Peoples Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution

A PEOPLE'S TRAGEDY

A History of the Russian Revolution

Orlando Figes

Copyright Orlando Figes, 1996

ISBN: 0670859168

FOR STEPHANIE

Contents

Illustrations x Preface xv Glossary xix Notes on Dates xxi Maps xxiii PART ONE RUSSIA UNDER THE OLD REGIME

1 The Dynasty 3

i The Tsar and His People 3

ii The Miniaturist IS

iii The Heir 24

2 Unstable Pillars 35

i Bureaucrats and Dressing-Gowns 35

ii The Thin Veneer of Civilization 42

iii Remnants of a Feudal Army 55

iv Not-So-Holy Russia 61

v Prison of Peoples 69

3 Icons and Cockroaches 84

i A World Apart 84

ii The Quest to Banish the Past 102

4 Red Ink 122

i Inside the Fortress 122

ii Marx Comes to Russia 139

PART TWO THE CRISIS OF AUTHORITY (1891-1917)

5 First Blood 157

i Patriots and Liberators 157

ii 'There is no Tsar' 173

iii A Parting of Ways 192

6 Last Hopes 213

i Parliaments and Peasants 213

ii The Statesman 221

iii The Wager on the Strong 232

iv For God, Tsar and Fatherland 241

7 A War on Three Fronts 253

i Metal Against Men 253

ii The Mad Chauffeur 270

iii From the Trenches to the Barricades 291

PART THREE RUSSIA IN REVOLUTION (FEBRUARY I9I7-MARCH 1918) 8 Glorious February 307

i The Power of the Streets 307

ii Reluctant Revolutionaries 323

iii Nicholas the Last 339

9 The Freest Country in the World 354

i A Distant Liberal State 354

ii Expectations 361

iii Lenin's Rage 384

iv Gorky's Despair 398

10 The Agony of the Provisional Government 406

i The Illusion of a Nation 406

ii A Darker Shade of Red 421

iii The Man on a White Horse 438

iv Hamlets of Democratic Socialism 455

11 Lenin's Revolution 474

i The Art of Insurrection 474

ii The Smolny Autocrats 500

iii Looting the Looters 520

iv Socialism in One Country 536

PART FOUR THE CIVIL WAR AND THE MAKING OF THE SOVIET SYSTEM

(1918-24)

12 Last Dreams of the Old World 555

i St Petersburg on the Steppe 555

ii The Ghost of the Constituent Assembly 575

13 The Revolution Goes to War 589

i Arming the Revolution 589

ii 'Kulaks', Bagmen and Cigarette Lighters 603

iii The Colour of Blood 627

14 The New Regime Triumphant 650

i Three Decisive Battles 650

ii Comrades and Commissars 682

iii A Socialist Fatherland 696

15 Defeat in Victory 721

i Short-Cuts to Communism 721

ii Engineers of die Human Soul 732

iii Bolshevism in Retreat 751

16 Deaths and Departures 773

i Orphans of the Revolution 773

ii The Unconquered Country 786

iii Lenin's Last Struggle 793

Conclusion 808

Notes 825

Bibliography 862

Index 895

Illustrations

Images of Autocracy: between pages 98 and 99

1 St Petersburg illuminated for the Romanov tercentenary in 1913

2 The procession of the imperial family during the tercentenary 3 Nicholas II rides in public view during the tercentenary 4 Nevsky Prospekt decorated for the tercentenary

5 Guards officers greet the imperial family during the tercentenary 6 Townspeople and peasants in Kostroma during the tercentenary 7 The court ball of 1903

8 The Temple of Christ s Resurrection

9 Trubetskoi s equestrian statue of Alexander III

10 Statue of Alexander III outside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour 11 The imperial family

12 Rasputin with his admirers

13 The Tsarevich Alexis with Derevenko

Everyday Life Under the Tsars: between pages 194 and 195

14 The city mayors of Russia

15 A group of volost elders

16 A newspaper kiosk in St Petersburg

17 A grocery store in St Petersburg

18 Dinner at a ball given by Countess Shuvalov

19 A soup kitchen for the unemployed in St Petersburg 20 Peasants of a northern Russian village

21 Peasant women threshing wheat

22 Peasant women hauling a barge

23 Twin brothers, former serfs, from Chernigov province 24 A typical Russian peasant household

25 A meeting of village elders

26 A religious procession in Smolensk province

27 The living space of four Moscow factory workers

28 Inside a Moscow engineering works

Dramatis Personae: between pages 290 and 291

29 General Brusilov

30 Maxim Gorky

31 Prince G. E. Lvov

32 Sergei Semenov

33 Dmitry Os'kin

34 Alexander Kerensky

35 Lenin

36 Trotsky

37 Alexandra Kollontai

Between Revolutions: between pages 386 and 387

38 Soldiers fire at the demonstrating workers on 'Bloody Sunday', 1905

39 Demonstrators confront mounted Cossacks during 1905

40 The opening of the State Duma in April 1906

41 The Tauride Palace

42 Petr Stolypin

43 Wartime volunteers pack parcels for the Front

44 A smart dinner party sees in the New Year of 1917

45 Troops pump out a trench on the Northern Front

46 Cossacks patrol the streets of Petrograd in February 1917

47 The arrest of a policeman during the February Days 48 Moscow workers playing with the stone head of Alexander II 49 A crowd burns tsarist emblems during the February Days 50 The crowd outside the Tauride Palace during the February Days 51 Soldiers receive news of the Tsar's abdication

Images of 1917: between pages 482 and 483

52 The First Provisional Government in the Marinsky Palace 53 The burial of victims of the February Revolution

54 A meeting of the Soviet of Soldiers' Deputies

55 Waiters and waitresses of Petrograd on strike

56 The AU-Russian Congress of Peasant Deputies

57 Fedor Linde leads an anti-war demonstration by the Finland Regiment during the April Crisis

58 Kerensky makes a speech to soldiers at the Front

59 Metropolitan Nikon blesses the Women's Battalion of Death 60 General Kornilov's triumphant arrival in Moscow during the State Conference 61 Members of the Women's Battalion of Death in the Winter Palace on 25 October 62 Some of Kerensky's last defenders in the Winter Palace on 25 October 63 The Smolny Institute

64 The Red Guard of the Vulkan Factory

The Civil War: between pages 578 and 579

65 General Alexeev

66 General Denikin

67 Admiral Kolchak

68 Baron Wrangel

69 Members of the Czech Legion in Vladivostok

70 A group of White officers during a military parade in Omsk 71 A strategic meeting of Red partisans

72 An armoured train

73 The Latvian Division passing through a village

74 Two Red Army soldiers take a break

75 Red Army soldiers reading propaganda leaflets

76 A Red Army mobile library in the village

77 Nestor Makhno

78 The execution of a peasant by the Whites

79 Jewish victims of a pogrom

80 Red Army soldiers torture a Polish officer

Everyday Life Under the Bolsheviks: between pages 674 and 675

81 Muscovites dismantle a house for firewood

82 A priest helps transport timber

83 Women of the 'former classes' sell their last possessions 84 A soldier buys a pair of shoes from a group of burzhoois 85 Haggling over a fur scarf at the Smolensk market in Moscow 86 Traders at the Smolensk market

87 Two ex-tsarist officers are made to clear the streets 88 Cheka soldiers close down traders' stalls in Moscow 89 Requisitioning the peasants' grain

90 'Bagmen' on the railways

91 The I May subbotnik on Red Square in Moscow, 1920

92 An open-air cafeteria at the Kiev Station in Moscow 93 Delegates of the Ninth All-Russian Party Congress