Synopses & Reviews
After the collapse of the Romanov dynasty in February 1917, Russia was subject to an eight month experiment in democracy. Sarah Badcock studies its failure through an exploration of the experiences and motivations of ordinary men and women, urban and rural, military and civilian. Using previously neglected documents from regional archives, this 2007 text offers a history of the revolution as experienced in the two Volga provinces of Nizhegorod and Kazan. Badcock exposes the confusions and contradictions between political elites and ordinary people and emphasises the role of the latter as political actors. By looking beyond Petersburg and Moscow, she shows how local concerns, conditions and interests were foremost in shaping how the revolution was received and understood. She also reveals the ways in which the small group of intellectuals who dominated the high political scene of 1917 had their political alternatives circumscribed by the desires and demands of ordinary people.
Review
"This is a significant contribution..." -Brian Bonhomme, American Historical Review
Review
"This welcome contribution to the history of the 1917 Russian revolution..." -Diane P. Koenker, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History
Review
"Sarah Badcock's new and exciting book is a major contribution to the historiography of 1917...It will be read with great interest by historians of the Revolution and shcolars of modern Russia more broadly...a fine addition to graduate-level seminars in Russian history." --Robert H. Greene, University of Montana: Canadian Journal of History
Review
"Sarah Badcock's study of the revolution offers a detailed and absorbing analysis of political power in the revolutionary setting of 1917." -Lutz Haefner, H-HistGeog
Review
"Badcock's book is a welcome addition to the still relatively small number of studies that have focused on the Russian Revolution outside St. Petersburg and Moscow. It also effectively challenges students to rethink the interpretations based on the views of the political elites. It is essential reading for all specialists on the Revolution."
The Historian, Richard D. King, Ursinus College
Synopsis
A 2007 analysis of Russian democracy's collapse in 1917 through the experiences of ordinary people.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction; 2. The February Revolution: whose story to believe?; 3. The Socialist Revolutionary Party, and the place of party politics; 4. Choosing local leaders; 5. Talking to the people and shaping Revolution; 6. Soldiers and their wives; 7. 'Water is yours, light is yours, the land is yours, the wood is yours'; 8. Feeding Russia; Conclusions; Bibliography.