Discusses
the history of the Soviet Union, from the revolution of 1917, through
the Lenin and Stalin eras and the rule of such leaders as Khrushchev,
Brezhnev, and Gorbachev, up to the formal dissolution of the Soviet
Union in 1991.
Dr
Peter Waldron, review of The
Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union 1917-1991,
(review no. 186)
This
is a wide-ranging collection of sources that aims to cover the whole
sweep of Soviet history: Richard Sakwa's work on the politics of the
Soviet Union makes him well placed to produce such a volume.Sources
in History,
the series in which the book appears, sets as one of its aims to
merge source material and commentary into a single integrated
narrative. This book admirably fulfils this objective and hence the
author's introductions to each document - alongside the selection of
sources themselves - give a coherent view of Soviet history. The
material is arranged chronologically, using conventional
periodisation, dividing the history of the Soviet state into ten
separate topics from the rise of Bolshevism to the fall of the Soviet
Union. The emphasis of the chapters focuses on domestic affairs,
apart from the sections dealing with the period between 1939 and 1953
which concentrate on the war and its aftermath.
The
material that Sakwa has selected presents a well-knit view of the
Soviet Union. This book is clearly orientated towards giving an
account of Soviet history that recognises political developments as
lying at the heart of the experience of the state and its people.
There is an unusual emphasis on Soviet political ideas, allowing
readers to gain some insight not just into the well-trodden paths of
Lenin's thought, but also into later ideological developments. The
debates in the 1920s over the course that the Soviet state should
take are reflected at length with interesting extracts from key
figures in the leadership, as well as its critics - such as Lukacs
(pp. 135-7) and Nadezhda Mandelstam (pp. 173-5). Stalin's ideas are
well represented, both in the crucial period of the 1920s and early
1930s, and also in the last years of his life. Extracts from later
figures in the Soviet leadership also help to illuminate the course
of the state's development. Khrushchev's and Brezhnev's very
different styles and ideas are given full exposure, and the dead hand
that characterised the later rulers of the USSR is made very evident.
At the same time, the trends of opposition to the state's leadership
are also given full exposure. Trotsky's 1936 writings onThe
Revolution Betrayed provide
a starting point to consider the nature of Stalin's regime, and there
are also extracts from foreign observers of the Soviet Union, such as
Richard Crossman. The dissident movement reached its fullest extent
during the last decades of the Soviet Union's existence as
Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov, Medvedev, Amalrik and others each launched
attacks upon the USSR. Their opinions are given full and clear
expression in this volume. This approach has important benefits. The
Soviet Union saw itself as a state that was based explicitly upon
ideology, and political theory played a much more significant part in
the life of the state - and of Soviet society - than in the West. At
a time when political ideology has been largely discredited in the
West as a means of discourse, it is very helpful to be reminded of
the ways in which theoretical approaches shaped the history of the
twentieth century.
The
Soviet Union attempted to give the impression that it was a
monolithic structure in which political differences had disappeared,
and that a state and society had been created which were entirely
cohesive. But, internal debate continued to flourish. Discussion
within the leadership was as fierce as inside any governing elite,
tempered only perhaps by fear during the 1930s. While some of these
discussions were carried on behind closed doors, wider Soviet society
had to be kept in tune with the thinking of its leaders if social
cohesion was to be maintained and there was to be appropriate
adherence to the state's objectives. Political debate could not,
therefore, be contained to the elites but they did seek to minimise
its transparency by utilising language and terminology that was often
opaque. Much official writing on Soviet politics is difficult to
comprehend and, as a result, much of the work of the opposition is
equally awkward. The utilisation of so much formal political writing
in this volume gives an insight into the nature of Soviet politics,
but it is not always easy for the untutored reader to gain a full
understanding of the issues that are being debated. Sakwa's
introductions to the extracts are helpful in providing a context for
the issues that they discuss, but there are times when the complexity
of the issues and the awkwardness of Soviet political language mean
that a fuller commentary could have made the subject matter more
accessible.
The
volume's concentration on politics, while producing a coherent view
of the history of the USSR, means that it falls short of - what is
perhaps the impossible task - of giving a comprehensive picture of
the Soviet Union. The approach that Sakwa has taken is one that
suggests that political elites occupy the commanding heights of both
state and society and that their activities and utterances do
actually determine the course of history. The material dealing with
the crucial processes of industrialisation and the collectivisation
of agriculture at the beginning of the 1930s focuses overwhelmingly
on the official interpretation of events. Stalin's speech on
'liquidating the kulaks as a class' (pp. 179-80) is followed by
observations from Kravchenko on his own experience in the countryside
(pp. 180-3), but this is the only element of 'popular' reaction to
the events that were tearing rural society apart as collectivisation
was implemented. A similar pattern is followed in the presentation of
industrialisation. While Sakwa sees cultural transformation as being
'an essential part of [this] revolution from above', he adopts an
approach that concentrates on changes to the intellectual atmosphere
in the Soviet Union - literature and history in particular - rather
than focussing on the impact that Stalin intended his revolution to
have on the attitudes and behaviour of the population as a whole. The
experience of terror in the 1930s is also portrayed in a way that
gives limited evidence of the impact of these tumultuous events on
the population of the Soviet state. It is not altogether easy to
divine the experience of 'everyday Stalinism', to use Sheila
Fitzpatrick's phrase, from the extracts in this volume. Sakwa's
approach deliberately eschews this way of looking at Soviet history:
he states in the introduction to the volume that he selected material
'through which a theoretical appraisal of its [the Soviet Union's]
rise and fall can be made' (p. xx). This is an entirely defensible
way of approaching the topic, and has much merit since it suggests
that the USSR was a state that is open to normal methods of political
analysis, rather than laying stress on the supposed uniqueness of the
Soviet state.
The
Soviet experience from 1917 until the eventual collapse of the state
in 1991 was, however, one that encompassed many moments of high
drama, of great excitement as well as demonstrations of both popular
enthusiasm and of iron will by Soviet rulers. The selection of
material in this volume gives only brief direct glimpses of the
earth-shattering course of Soviet history. There are occasional
pieces of material that grip the reader, and illuminate an issue by
conveying a sense of the excitement that should pepper the study of
Soviet history. Akhmatova's Requiem suggests
something of the awful nature of the 1930s and there are significant
sections of the material dealing with the 1941-45 war that send a
chill down the spine. Beria's secret memorandum of 1940 to Stalin
describing the 25,000 Polish officers captured after the Soviet
occupation as 'inveterate, incorrigible enemies of Soviet power' and
recommending that they all be shot gives a clear view of the simple
brutality of Stalin's regime (pp. 249-50). But it would be useful to
be able to read descriptions of the tumult of 1917 and its aftermath
and of the growing chaos that gripped the Soviet Union in its final
years to appreciate the dramatic circumstances in which the regime
both came into existence and then perished.
Sakwa's
approach does allow us to grasp an essential feature of the Soviet
Union - and one that is often misunderstood by students. The level of
central direction in the Soviet state gave it an exceptional quality
and this collection of documents is very good at exemplifying this
feature of Soviet existence. The section of the book that deals with
Khrushchev and the problems of reform in the post-Stalin environment
demonstrate very clearly how the centralised nature of both state and
society had created problems that were to prove intractable.
Agriculture was the focus of Khrushchev's attempts to bring about
change. Stalin's policy of collectivisation had clearly failed to
enable Soviet farming to prosper. Sakwa includes an extract from an
appeal to Khrushchev that condemns Soviet agricultural policy for
resulting in 'only crab meat and green peas' being on sale in many
regions (p. 314). Collectivisation represented the epitome of central
control, giving farmers little latitude in what and how they could
cultivate. But Khrushchev's solutions had to operate through the same
prism of centralisation. Soviet rulers recognised very clearly that
their political power depended upon strong central control of the
economy. In political terms, Khrushchev could not go too far in
denouncing the appalling excesses of Stalinism; his speech to the
Twentieth Party Congress in 1956 (pp. 316-22) was made in secret and
had to tread the difficult line of condemning the 'cult of
personality' that Stalin had constructed, while insisting that the
essential structures of state and society that had developed during
his nearly 30 years in power were truly Soviet and must be
maintained. This was the position taken by Soviet rulers for another
30 years, until Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and began to
comprehend that the ossified nature of the Soviet state was dragging
its economy into the dust.
Even
though Sakwa's main focus is on domestic matters, this selection of
documents is also good at illuminating the development of Soviet
foreign policy. The Soviet state had come into existence in 1917
determined to promote its model of revolution abroad. The impact of
this position both on the USSR itself, and on foreign states, was
immense and long lasting. This selection of documents allows the
reader to trace this development from the early days of the Comintern
(pp. 105-7) through the isolationism of the early 1930s to Soviet
fighting in the Second World War. A particular strength of Sakwa's
approach is the way in which he integrates the discussion of foreign
policy into the domestic context of Soviet history. The extracts
relating to the 'Cold Peace' between 1945 and 1953 combine analysis
of the Soviet Union's international position with Stalin's attempts
to re-impose orthodoxy at home by imposing greater control over
nationalities, science and art. The treatment of the last years of
the Soviet Union gives equal insight into the interaction of domestic
and foreign policy. Gorbachev's 1988 speech to the United Nations
(pp. 461-4) ranged widely across issues that were relevant to both
the Soviet Union's place in the world and to the internal politics of
both his own state and the Soviet satellites of Eastern Europe.
This
collection will prove useful to students taking courses on the
history and politics of the Soviet Union. It will certainly help them
to understand the nature and significance of a once-mighty state that
disappeared from the map almost overnight. The ease with which the
Soviet Union was dismantled has, perhaps, led to the development of a
view among students today that the USSR was a weak and feeble entity,
destined for oblivion from its inception. Sakwa's selection of
sources, together with his illuminating commentaries, should help to
dispel that view and to allow readers to gain insight into the
reasons why the Soviet state attracted both admiration and opprobrium
in almost equal measure over three quarters of the twentieth century.
April
2001
Series
editor's preface
|
|
Glossary
|
|
Acknowledgements
|
|
Introduction
|
|
The
Rise of Bolshevism
|
p.
1
|
1917:
From Revolution to Revolution
|
p.
32
|
The
Birth of the Soviet State, 1917-1921
|
p.
74
|
The
Paths Diverge, 1921-1929
|
p.
127
|
Building
Socialism, 1929-1939
|
p.
176
|
The
Road to Berlin, 1939-1945
|
p.
234
|
The
Cold Peace, 1945-1953
|
p.
289
|
Khrushchev
and Reform, 1953-1964
|
p.
313
|
Brezhnev
and Stagnation, 1964-1985
|
p.
351
|
Crisis
and Fall of the Soviet System, 1985-1991
|
p.
423
|
Further
Reading
|
p.
497
|
Bibliography
|
p.
499
|
Index
|
p.
505
|
Table
of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.
|
|
