Synopses & Reviews
The rise of the Bolsheviks is an epic Russian story that now has a definitive end. The major historian of the subject, Adam Ulam, has enlarged his classic work with a new Preface that puts the revolutionary moment, and especially Lenin, in perspective for our modern age.
Review
From reviews of the first edition: Notwithstanding the title...this is the most rewarding single study of Lenin that I have yet encountered...The really impressive feature of Ulam's book is that he is thinking hard all the way. No comfortable historical generalization or biographical cliché escapes his critical attention, and he has a most satisfying way of asking, in effect--is this an adequate explanation; what else may be involved? In these days of rampant 'be-that-as-it-may' writing, Ulam's intellectual seriousness is a great relief and pleasure. Henry L. Roberts
Review
This biography of Lenin...is so good that it is not merely superior in degree to any other life of Lenin, but different in kind. The conjunction of scholar and artist is the rarest thing. We used to be told that it was worth learning Italian to read Dante. Here is a new one: it is worth developing an interest in Lenin to read Adam Ulam. New York Times
About the Author
Adam B. Ulamwas Gurney Professor of History and Political Science at <>Harvard University.
Table of Contents
Preface, 1998: Lenin among the Bolsheviks
THE FAMILY
THE REVOLUTIONARY TRADITION
The Decembrists
Bakunin and Herzen
Chernyshevsky
Populism
APPRENTICESHIP
Samara
St. Petersburg
Siberia
Marxism
THE LEADER
The Iskra Period
What Is To Be Done
From the Rift to the Revolution of 1905
REVOLUTION AND REACTION
The Revolution of 1905
The Ebb
THE YEARS OF WAITING: 1908-1917
Splits and Scandals
On the World Stage: 1912-1917
1917
A Kind and Considerate Revolution
Toward the Great October
VICTORY
The Statesman
The Dictator
THE WORLDS OF COMMUNISM
The Old Economic Policy
The World of the Comintern
THE LAST STRUGGLES
Medicine and Administration
Intrigue and Death
Index