Heiko Haumann (Hrsg.) Die Russische Revolution 1917. Böhlau Verlag Köln, Weimar, Wien 2007. 182 S., 13 Abb., 1 Kte. = UTB für Wissenschaft, 2950.

This is a somewhat unusual volume in that it is a thematic and systematic history of the Russian Revolution but written as a collaboration between a team of authors. Five of the main chapters were written by the editor, Heiko Haumann, while the other seven were shared between five others. The common factor is that all the authors, in one way or another, are or were attached to the University of Basel, an institution able to pride itself on the breadth of expertise which, on this evidence, it enjoys. The twelve main chapters have been carefully chosen to cover a wide area of the revolution in the rather slim 150 pages of text and the contributions have been carefully edited to minimise overlap. The result is a more or less introductory account largely focused on the revolutionary year 1917 with some excursions into the earlier background and the later period of civil war and war communism. Happily, the volume succeeds in avoiding being mere narrative history and maintains a good analytical level. By and large the story that emerges is a fairly conventional one, depicting the deep roots of tsarist crisis going back to and even beyond emancipation in 1861. Perhaps the most controversial point about the discussion of origins is the brief attention given to the impact of the First World War. The political origins are presented as a continuity in which the war barely changes anything. The political narrative of the war is dealt with in a page and the Progressive Bloc rates only one mention. Similarly, the economic problems of the war are also somewhat elided. In the account of the revolution itself, however, there is a number of strengths. In particular, attention is paid to the periphery as well as the centre and it is here that the most original elements are to be found. In particular, some fresh sources have been brought into play, such as the memoirs of Swiss traveller Hans Limbach on Ukraine. The broad cultural objectives of the revolution are also referred to in two chapters on utopianism, the arts, the ‘new Soviet person’ and the intended transformation of everyday life. There is also space for reflection on the wider impact of the revolution in the early years and for analysis of its fate leading up to the rise of Stalin. Of course, each of these contributions is quite short, usually only about 13 or 14 pages, resembling essays rather than research articles, but the outcome is no less useful for that. As a whole the collection is an imaginative and stimulating place to begin to think about the revolution. Obviously, given its size, the volume is far from comprehensive. It also tends very much towards structural analysis, the acts of individuals being largely subsumed in wider narrative. It is also overwhelmingly political and cultural in its focus. Even though there is significant discussion of the economy at various points it tends to be about economic systems, structures and institutions rather than performance, there being few examples of statistical data on the economy or demography of the period. There is also a somewhat ambiguous coverage of social history in that attention is paid to the way of life of peasants and, to a lesser extent, workers but not so much to the defeated classes or the Whites. Indeed, the civil war, like the world war, is largely consigned to the margins of the account.

With such a short book it would be easy to elaborate on its omissions. However, it would also be appropriate to congratulate the authors on producing a stimulating and wide-ranging, up-to-date set of essays which should provide the non-specialist reader with the desire to know more, a desire which could be followed up by the short but well-chosen bibliography. There are also over a dozen useful illustrations, mostly photos but also a couple of poster reproductions and one map. There is a chronology which, like the volume itself, stretches from 1861 to 1930 but focuses on 1917 and 1918, and a helpful glossary. To summarize, this is a well-produced and stimulating brief introduction to the complexities of 1917.

Christopher Read, Coventry

Zitierweise: Christopher Read über: Heiko Haumann (Hrsg.): Die Russische Revolution 1917. Boehlau Verlag Köln, Weimar, Wien 2007. = UTB für Wissenschaft, 2950. ISBN: 978-3-8252-2950-4, in: Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. Neue Folge, 58 (2010) H. 1, S. 116-117: http://www.dokumente.ios-regensburg.de/JGO/Rez/Read_Haumann_Die_Russische_Revolution.html (Datum des Seitenbesuchs)