Short Histories are authoritative and elegantly written introductory texts which offer fresh perspectives on the way history is taught and understood in the twenty-first century. Designed to have strong appeal to university students and their teachers, as well as to general readers and history enthusiasts, Short Histories comprise novel attempts to bring informed interpretation, as well as factual reportage, to historical debates. Addressing key subjects and topics in the fields of history, the history of ideas, religion, classical studies, politics, philosophy and Middle East studies, these texts move beyond the bland, neutral ‘introductions’ that so often serve as the primary undergraduate teaching tool. While always providing students and generalists with the core facts that they need to get to grips with, Short Histories go further. They offer new insights into how a topic has been understood in the past, and what different social and cultural factors might have been at work. They bring original perspectives to bear on current interpretations. They raise questions and – with extensive bibliographies – point the reader to further study, even as they suggest answers. Each text addresses a variety of subjects in a greater degree of depth than is often found in comparable series, yet at the same time in a concise and compact handbook form. Short Histories aim to be ‘introductions with an edge’. In combining questioning and searching analysis with informed historical writing, they bring history up-to-date for an increasingly complex and globalized digital age. For more information about titles and authors in the series, please visit: https ://ww w.blo omsbu ry.co m/ser ies/s hort- histo ries/ A Short History of … the American Civil War Paul Anderson, Clemson University, USA the American Revolutionary War Stephen Conway, University College London, UK Ancient China Edward L Shaughnessy, University of Chicago, USA Ancient Greece P J Rhodes, Emeritus, Durham University, UK the Anglo-Saxons Henrietta Leyser, University of Oxford, UK Babylon Karen Radner, University of Munich, Germany the Byzantine Empire Dionysios Stathakopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus the Byzantine Empire: Revised Edition Dionysios Stathakopoulos, University of Cyprus, Cyprus Christian Spirituality Edward Howells, University of Roehampton, UK Communism Kevin Morgan, University of Manchester, UK the Crimean War Trudi Tate, University of Cambridge, UK English Renaissance Drama Helen Hackett, University College London, UK the English Revolution and the Civil Wars David J Appleby, Nottingham University, UK the Etruscans Corinna Riva, University of Erfurt, Germany Florence and the Florentine Republic Brian J. Maxson, East Tennessee State University, USA the Hundred Years War Michael Prestwich, Emeritus, Durham University, UK Judaism and the Jewish People Steven Jacobs, The University of Alabama, USA Medieval Christianity G R Evans, Emertius, University of Cambridge, UK the Minoans John Bennet, British School of Athens, Greece the Mongols George Lane, University of London, UK the Mughal Empire Michael H Fisher, Emeritus, Oberlin College, USA Muslim Spain Amira K Bennison, University of Cambridge, UK New Kingdom of Egypt Robert Morkot, Independent Scholar the New Testament Halvor Moxnes, University of Oslo, Norway the Normans Leonie V Hicks, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK the Ottoman Empire Baki Tezcan, University of California, Davis, USA the Phoenicians Mark Woolmer, Independent Scholar the Phoenicians: Revised Edition Mark Woolmer, Independent Scholar the Reformation Helen L Parish, University of Reading, UK the Renaissance in Northern Europe Malcolm Vale, Emeritus, University of Oxford, UK Revolutionary Cuba Antoni Kapcia, Emeritus, University of Nottingham, UK the Russian Revolution Geoffrey Swain, Emeritus, University of Glasgow, UK the Russian Revolution: Revised Edition Geoffrey Swain, Emeritus, University of Glasgow, UK the Spanish Civil War Julián Casanova, Central European University, Hungary the Spanish Civil War: Revised Edition Julián Casanova, Central European University, Hungary the Spanish Empire Felipe Fernández-Armesto, University of Notre Dame, France, and José Juan López-Portillo, University of Oxford, UK Transatlantic Slavery Kenneth Morgan, Brunel University, UK the Tudors Richard Rex, University of Cambridge, UK Venice and the Venetian Empire Maria Fusaro, University of Exeter, UK the Wars of the Roses David Grummitt, University of Kent, UK the Weimar Republic Colin Storer, University of Warwick, UK A Short History of the Russian Revolution REVISED EDITION GEOFFREY SWAIN 9781350153837_txt_print.indd 5 22-11-2021 16:25:42 BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain 2017 This edition published 2022 Copyright © Geoffrey Swain 2022 Geoffrey Swain has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. Cover design: Terry Woodley Cover image: Russian Revolution Poster with working man bursting out of his workers chains. Shawshots/Alamy Stock Photo. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Swain, Geoff, author. Title: A short history of the Russian Revolution / Geoffrey Swain. Description: Revised edition. | London ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, [2021] | Series: Short histories | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2021029066 (print) | LCCN 2021029067 (ebook) | ISBN 9781350153837 (paperback) | ISBN 9781350153844 (hardback) | ISBN 9781350153868 (pdf) | ISBN 9781350153851 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Soviet Union–History–Revolution, 1917-1921 Classification: LCC DK265 .S94 2021 (print) | LCC DK265 (ebook) | DDC 947.084–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021029066 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021029067 ISBN: HB: 978-1-3501-5384-4 PB: 978-1-3501-5383-7 ePDF: 978-1-3501-5386-8 eBook: 978-1-3501-5385-1 Series: Short Histories Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. Contents List of Illustrations viii Introduction 1 1 The Revolutionary Tradition of Russian Labour 5 2 The Provisional Government 25 3 The Success of Coalition 55 4 The Failure of Coalition 77 5 Six Months of Social Revolution 101 6 Insurrection 125 7 A Soviet Government 145 8 The Bolshevik–Left SR Coalition 167 Conclusion 197 Notes 203 Further Reading 221 Index 225 Illustrations 1 Pavel Milyukov, leader of the Kadet liberals and foreign minister in the first Provisional Government 27 2 State Duma deputy and Soviet leader Nikolai Chkheidze addressing soldiers 38 3 A women’s suffrage march 43 4 A meeting of the Soldiers’ Soviet in the chamber of the State Duma 50 5 Iraklii Tsereteli, leader of the Social Democrats in the Second State Duma and effective Soviet leader during the First Coalition Government 61 6 Kerensky during a tour of the front 63 7 Lenin addressing a crowd 67 8 The demonstration of 18 June, called by the Soviet Executive to support the First Coalition Government but subverted by the Bolsheviks. The banner reads: ‘Down with the ten capitalist ministers, all power to the soviets of workers’, soldiers’ and peasant deputies’ 74 9 General Lavr Kornilov in dress uniform 86 10 Lenin, disguised as a worker so that he could return to Petrograd for the Bolshevik Central Committee meeting on 10 October 1917 133 11 Soldiers and red guards ready for action 142 12 Alexander Shlyapnikov, a leading Bolshevik activist in the underground years and a key figure in February 1917; commissar of labour in Lenin’s first government 149 13 Solomon Lozovsky, a leading Bolshevik trade unionist and vocal critic of Lenin’s decision to include only Bolsheviks in his first government 160 14 Trotsky, after his appointed as military commissar in March 1918 191 INTRODUCTION It is no exaggeration to say that the events of 1917 in Russia set the political map for the rest of the twentieth century. The October Revolution of that year set in train the communist experiment, and the triumph of communism in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s prompted, as a reaction, the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe and culminated in the barbaric horrors of the Second World War. Then, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the obsession during the Cold War was the expansion of communism and its containment. Most of the history of the twentieth century can be traced back to the events of the night of 24–25 October 1917 when the street action which brought the Bolsheviks to power took place.1 So how did Lenin and the Bolsheviks win and consolidate their power? Writing history is all about editing the past to make sense of it. Writing a Short History of the complex events which occurred in Russia between February 1917 and July 1918 inevitably means that much has to be left out; however, even in a Short History there is a duty to suggest some interpretive guidelines through the maze of confusion that is the Russian Revolution. The interpretation offered here is simple and twofold. It is argued first, as Soviet scholars once argued, that the October Revolution represented the culmination of those revolutionary ambitions first articulated by Russia’s masses during the failed 1905 Revolution; the essence of ‘October’ was a popular revolution against a discredited Provisional Government which restored the revolution to the path it had been on when the Tsar was overthrown in February. Second, however, and quite unlike any Soviet scholarship, it is argued here that Bolshevik concepts of discipline and ideology meant that the party which had guided the masses to ‘October’ directed them in the months