Voices of the Revolution, 1917 [Hardcover]

Prof. Mark D. Steinberg (Author), Ms Marian Schwartz (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0300090161 | ISBN-13: 978-0300090161 | Edition: 1St Edition

Although much has been written about the political history of the Russian revolution, the human story of what the revolution meant to ordinary people has rarely been told. This book gives voice to the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of the Russian people, including workers, peasants, and soldiers, as expressed in their own words during the vast political, social, and economic upheavals of 1917. The documents in the volume include letters from individuals to newspapers, institutions, or leaders; collective resolutions and appeals; and even poetry. Selected from the State Archive of the Russian Federation in Moscow, nearly all the texts are published here for the first time. In these writings we hear the voices of ordinary Russians seeking to understand the revolution and make sense of the values, ideals, and discontents of their turbulent times. Not only do they speak of their particular needs and desires, notably for solutions to the economic crisis or an end to the war, they also reveal how relatively unprivileged Russians thought about such questions as political power, freedom, justice, democracy, social class, nationhood, and civic morality. Mark Steinberg provides introductions to the documents, explaining the language of popular revolution in Russia and setting the writings in the context of the history of the time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A wonderful achievement, a rare amalgam of excellent scholarship and original source materials." -- Ronald Grigor Suny, University of Chicago

"With precision and sensitivity, Steinberg reveals the emotional and unique appeals emanating from such a broad social base." -- Daniel Orlovsky, Southern Methodist University

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; 1St Edition edition (January 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300090161
• ISBN-13: 978-0300090161
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,432,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Steinberg teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign--he formerly taught at Harvard and Yale--and specializes on the cultural, intellectual, and social history of Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His interests focus on the cultures of the city, modernities, emotions, religion, the experiences and worldview of lower-class Russians, and the development of ideas and values. He is the author of a number of books and many articles and completed a video/audio lecture series, "A History of Russia: From Peter the Great to Gorbachev" for The Teaching Company. He has just completed work on the extensively revised 8th edition of History of Russia (with Nicholas Riasanovsky) and a study of St. Petersburg in the final years of the tsarist old regime. Since August 2006, he has been editor of the interdisciplinary journal Slavic Review. He was born in San Francisco and received his B.A. from U.C. Santa Cruz and his doctoral degree from U.C. Berkeley. He has also worked in New York City as a taxi driver and printer's apprentice.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Documentary history of the Russian Revolution, April 1, 2007

By 

M. A. Krul (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Voices of Revolution, 1917 (Paperback)

This collection titled "Voices of Revolution" is a selection from the many letters, resolutions, requests, appeals, complaints and invective sent to various state organs and important politicians from the period of the Russian Revolution by 'regular people'. Farmers, soldiers, deserters, workers, and so on all came together in that period to elect their own representatives and form their own councils, and these councilmembers in turn responded to the many confused events of those days with letters and resolutions supporting or opposing specific policies or politicians. Equally, individual farmers, laborers etc. wrote letters, requests, insults or even poetry to popular newspapers as well as party leaders in the hope of getting their voices heard.

In between all these documents, translated into English but also available online in their Russian originals, the editor Mark Steinberg provides a short but effective history of the period to give context to the many voices of the revolution. He does this fairly and accurately, and the many-sidedness of popular opinion in those days belies any one-sided view of the revolution. Of course it is never entirely clear how representative these individual and collective letters and appeals are, but judging by the various election results and the repetition of the same complaints and issues in the letters, the two match quite well. That makes this book an invaluable insight into the views of the common man in Russia, 1917.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important, May 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Voices of the Revolution, 1917 (Hardcover)

A remarkable collection of documents and interpretations giving one an understanding of the revolution from below. By the way, I notice that the original Russian texts of the documents are available at http://www.yale.edu/annals/Steinberg/golosa.htm