Title Captives of revolution : the socialist revolutionaries and the Bolshevik dictatorship, 1918-1923 / Scott B. Smith

Published Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania : University of Pittsburgh Press, [2011] ©2011

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Description 1 online resource (401 pages) : illustrations Series Pitt series in Russian and East European studies Series in Russian and East European studies Contents Dilemmas of civil war -- The shape of dictatorship -- Komuch -- The politics of the Eastern Front -- Between Red and White -- The end of the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries -- "Renegades of Socialism" and the making of Bolshevik political culture Summary The Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs) were the largest political party in Russia in the crucial revolutionary year of 1917. Heirs to the legacy of the People's Will movement, the SRs were unabashed proponents of peasant rebellion and revolutionary terror, emphasizing the socialist transformation of the countryside and a democratic system of government as their political goals. They offered a compelling, but still socialist, alternative to the Bolsheviks, yet by the early 1920s their party was shattered and its members were branded as enemies of the revolution. In 1922, the SR leaders became the first fellow socialists to be condemned by the Bolsheviks as "counter-revolutionaries" in the prototypical Soviet show trial. In <i>Captives of the Revolution,</i> Scott B. Smith presents both a convincing account of the defeat of the SRs and a deeper analysis of the significance of the political dynamics of the Civil War for subsequent Soviet history. Once the SRs decided to openly fight the Bolsheviks in 1918, they faced a series of nearly impossible political dilemmas. At the same time, the Bolsheviks fatally undermined the revolutionary credentials of the SRs by successfully appropriating the rhetoric of class struggle, painting a simplistic picture of Reds versus Whites in the Civil War, a rhetorical dominance that they converted into victory over the SRs and any left-wing alternative to Bolshevik dictatorship. In this narrative, the SRs became a bona fide threat to national security and enemies of the people-a characterization that proved so successful that it became an archetype to be used repeatedly by the Soviet leadership against any political opponents, even those from within the Bolshevik party itself. In this groundbreaking study, Smith reveals a more complex and nuanced picture of the postrevolutionary struggle for power in Russia than we have ever seen before and demonstrates that the Civil War-and in particular the struggle with the SRs-was the formative experience of the Bolshevik party and the Soviet state Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-370) and index Notes Print version record Subject Partīi︠a︡ sot︠s︡īalistov-revoli︠u︡t︠s︡īonerov -- History Partīi︠a︡ sot︠s︡īalistov-revoli︠u︡t︠s︡īonerov Socialists -- Soviet Union -- History Revolutionaries -- Soviet Union -- History Communism -- Soviet Union -- History Socialism -- Soviet Union Dictatorship -- Soviet Union -- History Political culture -- Soviet Union -- History HISTORY -- Europe -- Eastern. HISTORY -- Europe -- Former Soviet Republics. HISTORY -- Europe -- Russia & the Former Soviet Union. HISTORY -- General. Communism Dictatorship Political culture Politics and government Revolutionaries Socialism Socialists Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921. Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1917-1936. Soviet Union Genre/Form Electronic books History Form Electronic book LC no. 2010046565 ISBN 9780822977797 0822977796

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