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Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime

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Pipes, a former security advisor to President Reagan, has been accused (often) of having a particular ideological axe to grind, viz a deep seated anti-bolshevism, so it is to be expected that his long awaited history of the Bolshevik coup would be critical of Lenin and his associates - and it is. However, Pipes does not lean towards ascribing any greater morality to many of Lenin's opponents and he is uncompromising in the harshness of his judgment over the anti-Bolshevik Whites and the ineffectual socialists. Katkov, Kenez, and Figes recently have produced esteemed works on the period, but Pipes have transcended their works by producing a tome that covers all of the manifold social, political and military events of 1917-1923. Along with Orlando Figes, Pipes characterises Red October as ultimately an incomplete revolution, one which swept away the vestiges of the old aristocratic and commercial order but which was stymied by the resilence of the peasants. It is increasingly recognised that the dreadful collectivization programmes of Stalin were not an aberation, as claimed by leftists, but a continuation of Lenin's policies. By reading this work, amongst others, the legend of the good Lenin and his revolution being somehow hijacked by the villanous Stalin is finally buried. Since the fall of the CCCP new documentary evidence has clarified the true nature of the Soviet Union, and Pipes has taken advantage of this material to support his thesis that Lenin and Stalin were part of a revolutionary continuity. Pipes' grasp of his subject and the inclusion of material in one volume that is unavailable in a score of other works makes this THE book on the period. The full drama of the Civil War is revealed and illuminated as no one else, save for Peter Kenez, has ever done. There are chapters on the new Soviet art, politics, and intrigue. It is recommended that the book be read with Orlando Figes' "A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924", to illuminate this important period in Russian history.

This is definitely one book that sheds light on the early years of Lenin's regime. This book covers many different aspects of the early regime, from the trials of the civil war to the regime's early attempts to spread communism across the western world. Other aspects included the early education programs of the regime and the government bureaucracy that grew like wildfire. The main time frame of this book is from just after the revolution to about the time of Lenin's death, although many topics extend into the 1930s. One can also pick out the topics that were obvious problems in the early 1920s, yet were still present upon the regime's demise in 1991.

Richard Pipes does an excellent job of providing the reader with a comprehensive view of the early regime - few topics go untouched. More importantly, this book is based on a large amount of factual, documented information, some of which has been made available by the recently opened archives in Russia.

This is one of the most authoritative books I have read about the Soviet Union. In the words of the person who recommended it to me - "You'll understand nothing about the Soviet Union if you haven't read this book."

This is an extraordinary book. It is an extremely important companion to Conquest's "The Great Terror", for it sets the table. And what a feast it is. Many of the people reading this will have grown up like I did in a cold war household. In those days, in Canada anyway, I actually had friends who ardently espoused communism. Who extolled Lenin and even Stalin. Who saw the western democracies as weak, rotten to the core and on their last legs. We all knew people like that.

It was the western media, more than anything else that we had to thank for that. It was dominated by leftists, many of them (as hard as this is the believe) actually in the pay of, or beholden to, Russia. Those who weren't were hopelessly and wilfully blind. For me, one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th Century was how so many people came to be so thoroughly duped by a murderous gang of thugs who had hijacked the Russian people and sought to take over the world. How was it possible? Pipes tells this story.

And he pulls no punches. He comes from the Thucydidean school of history. He is absolutely unafraid to pass judgement. The first part of the book covers the Russian Civil war from 1918 - 1920. This strange, complex struggle still has yet to have a book length study devoted to it. But Pipes provides the reader with more than enough.

Like Conquest, Pipes is at pains to point out that there was nothing at all organic about the Russian Revolution. It was more of a coup d'etat, stage managed by a tiny cadre of Bolsheviks who had the army on their side. The workers and the peasants, and this is CRUCIAL for our understanding of what happened, had literally NOTHING to do with it.

Once Lenin and his gang were in control (and I use the term "gang" advisedly because they behaved and operated very like a criminal gang), they turned their attention to the rest of the world. They actually believed that their "revolution" was to be followed by a world revolution - which they would supervise. Pipes chapter entitled "Communism for Export" will have you shaking your head in disbelief.

The Russians knew they couldn't control what was written about them unless they controlled WHO did the writing. They did this by refusing the major press agencies access to Russia until Moscow had approved the journalist. The Sunday Times famously stood up to this bullying for decades. Not the New York Times. They sent a pre-approved journalist by the name of Walter Duranty. Ironically, Duranty was an out spoken anti-Communist. But he quickly realised that if he wrote what the Russians wanted, he would have access to inside information - with that would come influence and fame. Better yet for Duranty, he very early on identified Stalin as Lenin's likely successor (at a time which this was not at ALL obvious). He began to eulogise Stalin. He praised collectivisation, denied the Ukrainian famine - and resorted to lie upon lie upon lie. Such was the credulity of the western public and press that he was rewarded for his infamy with the Pulitzer Prize.

He was not alone. Muggeridge reports that all the correspondents voluntarily took their wire stories to the censors to be censored. John Reed, virtually canonised by the movie Reds (a movie which is in and of itself largely a shocking lie), was nothing more than a fellow-traveller blind to every excess of the Bolsheviks. The portrait of him in these pages will have your blood boiling. Randolph Hearst in a signed editorial in 1918 described Lenin's regime as the "truest democracy in Europe."

The point needs to be made bluntly. All of these journalists and fellow travellers have blood on their hands. Had the world stood up to first Lenin and later Stalin, millions, COUNTLESS millions could have been saved.

I have so little room to extol this book. I can only hope that my enthusiasm will in some way prove infectious and draw you to read it. I have focused on one aspect of this book. There is so much more. For example. Pipes makes persuasive case that Communism, Fascism and National Socialism have common roots. That Russian communism was eerily similar to Tsarism (only the Tsarists were more compassionate!)

Very importantly, Lenin comes in for the thrashing that he has so richly deserved all these long years. This zealot has escaped scrutiny for decades - largely because what came after him was so nightmarish. People for some reason like to think of Lenin as a benign philosopher - idealistic and pure - whose dreams were shattered by the evil that was to follow. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING could be farther from the truth. He was a murderer, a mass murderer, just like Stalin. The only difference was one of scale. The fact was that Lenin hated democracy - stamped it out - built a totalitarian dictatorship - and paved the way for one of the greatest monsters of all time. And it is small solace to know that Lenin and his gang of thugs reaped what they sowed. That years later Stalin would literally exterminate them with their own weapons.

Read this Book. It is one of the most important books about the 20th Century you will ever read - and it is filled with lessons that we must take to heart. We CAN learn from history. History teaches us to see patterns - it helps us to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

This was a nice finale to Pipes' trilogy on the Russian Revolution. Among this book's most interesting chapters was the chapter dealing with the Russian Civil War. Here, he takes the readers through the "White" movement, which though commanding a considerable amount of resources (including a measure of foreign support) was totally unsuccessful in trying to dislodge the Bolsheviks (who, by Lenin's own admission, were a tiny fringe group). Pipes goes to lengths to discuss how the Whites were poorly organized in terms of administration. Moreover, he points to their ridiculous insistence on restoring a unitary state within Russia. This alienated anti-Bolshevik elements among Russia's "national minorities." He also looks at often-repeated accusations that the Whites were a heavily anti-Semitic movement. While conceding that the Whites definitely had more than a few anti-Semites in high places, he argues that many of the pogroms that were conducted against Jews at this time were carried out by vigilante groups only loosely associated with the Whites (i.e., certain Cossack groups). Another interesting chapter deals with the connection between Communism and "Fascism." Here, Pipes goes far toward debunking the cherished myth that these 2 ideologies were polar opposites. Rather, he argues, Fascists (especially Hitler) borrowed many of their organizational strategies from the Bolsheviks, and had a similar view of the "revolutionary totalitarian state". Finally, Pipes continues a running argument that Bolshevik (and Stalinist) totalitarianism had very deep roots in Russian soil, something that is critical toward understanding the development of the Soviet Union.

Simply stated: a must read for those who have read Russia Under the Old Regime and Thr Russian Revolution. Pipes continues his survey of Russian history and his explanation of how governments in general work. Thsi historian is brilliant in all respects, not least of all his understanding of Russian history under communism. This book should be read by anyone studying political movements or by anyone who plans to initiate a political movement!

Simply stated: a must read for those who have read Russia Under the Old Regime and Thr Russian Revolution. Pipes continues his survey of Russian history and his explanation of how governments in general work. Prof Pipes is brilliant as usual in all respects, not least of all his understanding of Russian history under communism. This book should be read by anyone studying political movements or by anyone who plans to initiate a political movement!

Pipes history is what people pay the big dollars for at Harvard. This is a big book, filled with fact. Written at a time of ever increasing, accurate data, Russia under the Bolsheviks presents the pure folly of War Communism, and the resulting famine with devastating detail. The sequale of fascism from bolshevickism is right on the money IMHO. Less compelling is the account of the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, yet the contoversy about that will go on into the next century. Well written for a history text; a certain wry irony manages to shine through.

Having just read Richard Pipes' trilogy on the buildup and development of the Russian Revolution, I highly recommend them all and thoroughly enjoyed this closing edition. I certainly hope that Mr. Pipes continues the series into the Stalin era at some point.

Pipes' book is good as an objective history of the Russian Revolution not only for restating the well known crimes of Bolshevism but also for describing the not so well known crimes of the Bolsheviks' antagonists in the Russian Civil War, the "Whites" who increasingly took on a monarchist and proto-fascist character. They were virulently anti-semitic committing many "pogroms" or massacres of Jewish people and causing not only sections of the peasantry but certain liberal anti-communists to view them as the greater menace to Russia. Kerensky himself, a victim of an attempted right wing coup three months before the ascension of the Bolsheviks to power, was said to have voiced such sentiments from his exile in the United States. He felt that the Soviets were unstable and sure to collapse before too long but that if the forces of the old regime represented by the Whites got back in power, Russia would be in an even worse predicament. These concerns were shared by many other moderate and liberal anti-communists, particularly after the "Kolchak coup" resulted in the removal of the liberals and moderate socialists, elected by the Consituent Assembly the Bolsheviks had dispersed, from the White "Omsk Government."

Upon finishing Pipes's wonderful account of the early years of the Bolshevik regime, it will be evident that Lenin, Trotsky, and the rest of the communist leaders were engaged in perhaps the most reactionary political project in human history. Pipes's absolutely original and insightful analysis of the links between Bolshevism, Fascism, and the Holocaust is a must read