Just Finished Reading: Revolutionary Russia – 1891-1991 by Orlando Figes (FP: 2014)

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way – not there and not then. Definitely not under those circumstances. Karl Marx had predicted that the inevitable fall of Capitalism and the emergence of the final Communist State would happen in the most advanced countries on the Earth – Britain or possibly Germany with their mass proletariat and clear signs of Capitalistic contradictions. The one place where the Revolution was not going to happen was in a rural backwater like Russia. It was all wrong. But revolution was indeed bubbling under the surface – after military defeat abroad and famine at home. The first mass revolt was bloodily repressed but the aristocratic government failed to learn the lesson they had been given. The next revolt failed too but concessions were made and a fuller freedom looked at least theoretically possible. But power stayed in the hands of the Emperor Czar and his less than able cronies. Only with another series of defeats in yet another war – against Germany this time – was the system weakened enough and the people energised enough to push the tottering state to one side. In the mix, in the thick of it, was a small band of Communists led by Lenin who saw the opportunity for power. When the blow was struck in 1917 they had the power, barely, to impose their views and their ideology on a country still reeling from its involvement in WW1. But they singularly did not have enough power to take control of the entire country.

The Civil War that followed was by any standards brutal. As Whites fought Reds and thousands died on both sides the recently victorious Allies intervened – somewhat half-heartedly – to destroy the Bolshevik menace at its birth. They and the White army failed and Soviet Russia burst onto the world stage. Realising that they were ideologically an aberration Lenin and his compatriots awaited revolution throughout Europe. When the arrow of History failed to point in their direction, and attempts to make it do so failed, Russia turned inwards to create a singular Communist State in one country and so the tragedy dragged on. Tragedy it was when the founder’s guidance died with Lenin and Stalin came to prominence and then power against all the odds and all the expectations of the Communist elites. When events, both personal and national, conspired to feed Stalin’s paranoia those who helped him gain power lived (briefly) to regret it. Many millions more would have died in Stalin’s purges and farm collectivisations if WW2 had not intervened. Many millions died in the Great Patriotic War to protect Soviet Russia in the face of an implacable enemy. Many of those who fought so bravely (briefly) lived to regret saving comrade Stalin to extend his terror into the 1950’s until his sudden death in 1953.

With the post-Stalin thaw the Soviet Union (having expanded into Eastern Europe) arguably entered its (brief) ‘golden age’ before freezing again in the face of breakaway forces from Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Stagnating into the 1970’s and beyond Russia and its satellite states settled in to a slow decline. Until a new breed of leader appeared with new ideas and new energy to reform and repair the Union by a return to ideas originally espoused by Lenin himself. One such leader was Mikhail Gorbachev whose plan to revitalise the Soviet Union ultimately undermined it to a fatal extent resulting in its sudden and surprisingly peaceful collapse followed by the end of Communism in Russia itself shortly afterwards.

After reading this detailed and fascinating history of Russia I now know far more about that country and the series of trials and tribulations it has gone through. All that happened in the century long span covered here helped me understand, or at least appreciate, why Russia is the way it is today. Perspective is a wonderful thing and although Putin is hardly mentioned here looking back on that countries very troubled history it becomes much easier to understand why the people want someone like him in charge of things. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in world history and for those who wonder what we can ‘look forward to’ in the next few decades.