The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1923

by Edward Hallett Carr

Book Overview

The second volume discussed the regime's economic policies; the civil war and the subsequent series of radical measures known as 'war communism'; the revolt of the peasants; and the catastrophic decline of industry that forced Lenin to institute the New Economic Policy (NEP). The course of NEP is traced down to the price crisis of 1923 and the first tentative steps toward planning.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393301974
• ISBN13: 9780393301977
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 412 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A Thoughtful Academic Look At The Bolshevik Revolution

The first couple of paragraphs have been used in other reviews of E.H. Carr's fourteen volume master work on the consolidation, isolation, stabilization and subsequent Stalinization of the Soviet Union in the early days. "In early reviews of books on the Russian Revolution, including Leon Trotsky's seminal study of the revolutionary seizure of power itself, "The History Of The Russian Revolution", I used the following paragraph to introduce the reviews. I am reposting it here because it is appropriate to place the work of the British master bourgeois historian of the whole early period of that revolution, Edward Hallet Carr: "This year is the 90th Anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution (2007, Markin). I have endlessly pointed out that the October Revolution in Russia was the definitive political event of the 20th century. The resulting change in the balance of world power with the demise of the Soviet Union in the 1990's is beginning to look like a definitive political event for the 21st century, as well. I have urged those interested in the fight for socialism to read, yes to read, about the Russian Revolution in order to learn some lessons from that experience. Leon Trotsky's three volume "History of the Russian Revolution" is obviously a good place to start for a pro-Bolshevik overview. If you are looking for a general history of the revolution or want an analysis of what the revolution meant for the fate of various nations after World War I or its affect on world geopolitics look elsewhere. E.H. Carr's "History Of The Bolshevik Revolution" offers an excellent multi-volume set that tells that story through the 1920's. Or if you want to know what the various parliamentary leaders, both bourgeois and Soviet, were thinking and doing in 1917 from a moderately leftist viewpoint read Sukhanov's "Notes on the Russian Revolution". For a more journalistic account John Reed's classic "Ten Days That Shook the World" is invaluable. Forward to new October Revolutions." Needless to say E.H. Carr, as noted above, is in some pretty good company and properly belongs there as well. I noted that his work entails a several volume effort. The present review is of Volume One of his three volume "History Of The Bolshevik Revolution 1917-1923". A review of the other two volumes will follow as will other volumes on the Stalin-Trotsky struggle for the direction of the revolution and the eventual Stalinization of the Bolshevik Party, the Communist International and the Soviet state. Naturally, Carr in his first volume gave a quick historical narrative of the pre-revolutionary struggles among the socialist and democratic factions and the immediate post- Bolshevik seizure of power period but from there spend most of that volume dealing with the questions of soviet constitutionality and the socialist implementation of the right to national self-determination for the previously subject nations (or wannabe nations) of the former Tsarist Empire. In Volume Two, under re

Excellent

This is the definitive source for an unbiased account of the Russian Revolution. Volume one of a three volume series, it covers the origins of the Bolshevik party to and through the taking of power in 1917. The most immediately apparent attribute to this work is its even handedness; this is the place to go if you want an account of what really happened, not the traditional right-wing or left-wing spin.