923 pages, Viking, ISBN-13:
978-0670859160
Radical Leftists the world over seem to taken to heart the old
maxim “you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs”, only substitute the
word “omelet” with “revolution” and the word “eggs” with “people” and you get
their worldview…and there haven’t been many bigger omelets than the Russian
Revolution. Throughout A People’s
Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution, author Orlando Figes explores
many of the underlying components that made the Russian Revolution of 1917
possible: How did it occur? What factors helped the revolutionary movement take
root in tsarist Russia? Can the Revolution trace its origins to one single
person or event? Was the Revolution avoidable? Finally, and perhaps most
importantly, what was the Russian Revolution’s most enduring impact and legacy?
Figes begins his work by taking us back a good two decades before it began before
bringing us up to Lenin’s death, about a decade afterward; the advantage of
this perspective is that it gives the reader an historical context for the
events that eventually brought down centuries of tsarist rule and raised up the
Bolsheviks (the obvious disadvantage being that a certain amount of detail is
unavoidably lost). Still, for a one-volume treatment of the subject, you can't
go wrong with this book. Comprehensive and informed, it is a generally lively
read, as history books go.
Using a “bottom-up” style analysis, Figes makes the point that the
Russian Revolution was not an elite-driven event like most uprisings throughout
the course of human history, but rather a true revolution of the people, one in
which common, ordinary individuals revolted and systematically dismantled the
social, political, and economic underpinnings of Tsarist Russia. Because the
Russian revolutionaries understood the concept that power exists in numbers,
Figes argues that many of the Bolsheviks turned to the Russian people as a
means of inflicting greater damage on Tsar Nicholas II’s regime. According to
Figes the Bolshevik revolution was an idealistic concept that was doomed to
fail when applied by, and applied to, imperfect human beings; the result was
the transformation of innocent idealism into totalitarian terror. This is, I
think, giving too much credit – to say nothing of humanity – to the
revolutionaries who directed the slaughter of all opposition. Be warned: if you
are a committed commie then chances are you’ll find yourself opposing the tone
of this book; if, however, you are a dedicated anticommunist I think that it
will suit you better, but Figes sympathy towards the more genuinely committed
communists will probably aggravate your intolerance. For all that Figes comes
off about as fair and balanced as a thinking individual with the capacity for
informed judgment can be.
Figes tries to balance the personalities, the politics and the
events of the Revolution to bring it to life without sacrificing facts. It is a
compelling period filled with fascinating characters: the Russian statesman and
the first post-imperial prime minister of Russia, Prince Georgy Yevgenyevich
Lvov; the Last Emperor of Russia, Czar Nicholas II; the Russian and Soviet
writer and founder of the socialist realism, Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, better
known by the alias Maxim Gorky; the “Mad Monk”, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin; the
communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist, Vladimir Ilyich
Ulyanov, better known by the alias Lenin; the revolutionary, theorist and
Soviet politician, Lev Davidovich Bronstein, better known by the alias Leon Trotsky; the last non-Communist leader of
Russia before 1989, Alexander Fyodorovich Kerensky; and that’s just scratching
the surface. With so many individuals taking a stand against the Tsarist
government, traditional Russian society quickly imploded as the weakness of
Nicholas II and his centralized government structure gave way to overwhelming
rebellions and revolts driven by the Russian people. Figes, not quite agreeing
with the Marxist/Hegelian view that men don’t make history, effectively shows
the importance of the personalities of the Revolution’s cast of characters and
how a different man in the same place at the same time could have easily
changed everything; when millions of people rallied to the Bolshevik cause,
Nicholas and his regime simply could not resist the popular front that emerged
to challenge his rule, thus guaranteeing a seizure of power by the Communists.
As Figes goes to great pains to point out, however, this “movement
of the people” did not result in positive changes for Russians: during the several
decades that followed their seizure of power, the inchoate Communist regime
implemented sweeping changes into Russian society that killed millions of
people and resulted in the destruction of entire communities; thus, as the
title of Figes’ book implies, the Russian Revolution was one of tragedy and
loss, not victory and gain. Although it was a revolution truly born out of the
participation, wishes, and desires of the Russian people themselves, it was a
revolution that, ultimately, destroyed and consumed its own people in the end.
The Russian Revolution was a catastrophic failure in that it exchanged a bad
system of government for one that was far worse and evil than its predecessor;
it was truly a “people’s tragedy” in that its origins and causes lie with the
common people who made it possible for the Bolsheviks to usurp power and
control away from the Tsar. A People’s Tragedy
is essential reading to understand how and why the Soviet experiment
degenerated into the nightmare. With so much talk lately about America’s turn
towards socialism and the rising level of vitriolic and polarizing discontent
with our government, Figes’ book offers unexpected contemporary insight into
the dynamics of political and social change that should give us all pause. Even
if we are condemned to repeat the past because we cannot remember it, at least
we can be prepared.
