The Officer Corps, Professionalism, and Democracy in the Russian Revolution

Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press. Published version reproduced with the permission of the publisher.Russia's 'democratic' revolution of February 1917 saw all types of professions and social groups mobilize into unions and congresses to articulate their demands. Lower and middle classes dominated, but it is notable how former elite groups were quick to form bodies to defend their interests and to promote their visions of Russia's future. Historians have invariably dismissed these groups as marginal to the revolutionary process and inherently 'counter-revolutionary'. This article challenges these assumptions, using the Union of Officers, formed across the military in May 1917 to defend officers' professional interests, as a case study. The union spread quickly, published a newspaper, and agitated among politicians for greater discipline in the military. Its activities fuelled popular fears of counter-revolution, but only a few of the union's leaders actively worked against the government. General Kornilov's failed revolt in August demonstrated that most officers had doubts. Nevertheless, the union played a crucial role in mobilizing moderate and conservative forces against further reform. This exacerbated social conflict and political polarization, fatally undermining the Provisional Government and democracy in 1917.The British Academ

The Problems of 'Becoming Soviet': Former Nobles in Soviet Society, 1917-41

Copyright © 2008 SAGE PublicationsThere has been much new research on the extent to which the identities, beliefs and practices of ordinary citizens changed after 1917, and whether people were 'becoming Soviet'. This emphasis has tended to underplay continuities. This article uses the personal accounts of former nobles to examine levels of change and continuity in their activities and beliefs in the interwar period. There was change; many felt that they had 'become Soviet' because they obtained jobs, survived everyday challenges and endured the regime. Becoming 'workers', however, was not the same as 'becoming Soviet'. Strong continuities in other areas helped nobles to maintain a distinct identity in terms of practices and mentality (if not their material position). Rather than 'becoming Soviet', many former nobles tried to remain themselves. Many were surprisingly successful, suggesting that continuities played a significant role in early Soviet society

Quantifying Counter-Revolution

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis (Routledge) via the DOI in this record.This article uses the numerous statistics produced by revolutionary tribunals to explore the nature of counterrevolution after the October Revolution, how it changed and developed across the civil war, and the importance of revolutionary justice, as represented by tribunals, in facilitating the Bolsheviks’ victory. Statistics are unreliable sources and the state faced plenty of problems in gathering data, but these figures permit us to explore key areas and trends, and demonstrate the ability of revolutionary justice to react in more nuanced ways to the counter-revolutionary threat than repressive organs such as the Cheka

Forging a Revolutionary Army: The All-Russian Military Union in 1917

© The Author(s) 2012The Russian military was deeply divided after the February Revolution of 1917, but if Russia was to emerge victorious from the First World War, it needed to forge a unified revolutionary army. This article examines the only serious attempt to foster unity, the All-Russian Military Union. While the union was not successful, a study of its activities emphasizes that divisions existed within social groups in the military as well as between them, which were exacerbated by the authorities. It also sheds light on the role of unions in the military and across Russia in 1917

How revolutionary was revolutionary justice? Legal culture in Russia across the revolutionary divide

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Routledge via the link in this recordOn 24 November 1917, the Bolsheviks published their vision for a new justice system. Abolishing all existing courts, they established local (later people’s) courts for crimes such as murder, theft and civil disputes, and revolutionary tribunals to combat threatening ‘counter-revolutionary’ crimes such as plots, revolts and sabotage. Both courts were instructed to rely on existing laws only insofar as they did not contradict new decrees or party programmes, and to use revolutionary consciousness to reach a verdict. Through this and subsequent decrees, the Bolsheviks intended to create a new legal culture for the revolutionary state

Revolutionary Tribunals and the Origins of Terror in Early Soviet Russia

Copyright © 2011 Institute of Historical Research. The definitive version is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2281.2010.00566.x/abstractAfter the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks restructured Russia's legal system, assigning the central role in targeting their enemies to revolutionary tribunals. Within months, however, this ‘revolutionary justice’ was marginalized in favour of the secret police (Cheka) and a policy of terror. This article utilizes the archives of three tribunals, contemporary writings, newspapers and memoirs to examine the tribunals' investigations and trials, and their impact. It argues that the relative failure of tribunals paved the way for the terror that engulfed Russia by autumn 1918 and laid the foundations of the repressive Soviet state.British Academ

The Battle for Spaces and Places in Russia's Civil War

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks needed to battle to control Russia’s urban and rural spaces to win the war, exert state power and transform mentalities. This article argues that revolutionary tribunals played an important role by organizing travelling sessions to reach beyond abstract spaces into the familiar places central to people’s everyday lives. They held trials in public squares, workers’ clubs, passenger waiting halls, and other similar places, transforming them into the official vision of the revolution. As political courts focusing on counter-revolutionary crimes, tribunals projected the concerns of the central state more effectively than local courts. This helped the Bolsheviks to exert state power across Russia, thereby contributing to the end of the civil war