Peasant Russia, Civil War: The Volga Countryside in Revolution (1917-1921)

By Orlando Figes

Book Overview

This is the first non-Soviet history of the Volga countryside during the Russian revolution and civil war of 1917-1921. The product of extensive study of numerous archival sources--many of them from central government archives, and previously considered highly secret--it reconstructs the revolutionary experience of the peasantry in the crucial Volga region, situated immediately behind the military fronts between the Reds and the Whites. Figes examines in detail the impact of the revolution on the villages. With the destruction of the old agrarian state, the task of reforming the social life of the countryside was left to the peasants, who set about reconstructing the order according to traditional peasant notions of social justice. The ability of the Bolsheviks to mobilize the peasantry is explained in terms of political and social developments at the village level during the civil war. The civil war, Figes argues, left a deep scar on the peasant economy and peasant-state relations, which influenced the entire development of the Soviet regime.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019822169X
• ISBN13: 9780198221692
• Release Date: November 1991
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A detailed look at the Peasants

Detailed and focussed on the Volga countryside of Russia, 1917-.If Trotsky and Lenin suceeded in mounting a succesful revolution, why did they succeed in overcoming all opposition and securing the Soviet State?Through a detailed analysis of the tensions and pressures that ensue. A little narrow in focus for the first-time reader, it would be difficult to get hold of the fdetails firmly. The general reader in depth should try instead People's Tragedy by the same author. This retains the same readabilityy, but you need to be able to place in context some of the developments in the village and their correspondence with events in the Civil War to get all you can out of it. Something most British BA students of history will want by them when writing essays to give unreproachable quotable stuff, and MA students in the area will want to have opinions upon.