If you are very interested in the Russian Revolution, this book is the definitive account. Pipes even contended that the peasantry were and remained monarchists after 1917 without offering “sources for this assertion, for there cannot be any.”, More problematic than his litany of historical distortions was Pipes’s historical method. This book took a major commitment (850 pages in small print). No one can claim to be well informed concerning this issue without having read Pipes. Use the advanced modern technology that human develops this day to locate the book Three " Whys" Of The Russian Revolution, By Richard Pipes conveniently. Russian Revolution. You reach the conclusion with enormous relief as if you have been freed of a burden. The Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes is an enormous, detailed and eventually rewarding study of events that influenced a century of history. Conservative pundits have incorrectly depicted Pipes as a champion for democracy —obviously without having read this book. Genuine scholarship … lies in the willingness of the historian to ponder the subject from all sides, and this takes time.”, More accurate is his admission of the “great man” view of history and his contempt for ordinary Russians. New York, NY, Vintage Books, 1995 1. But that was later. Very informative but a bit dense. We’d love your help. He is the author of numerous books and essays on Russia, past and present, including Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime. We’ve got your back. In many ways it turned out to be a suitable choice for a starting point for a study of this subject. About The Russian Revolution Mr. Richard Pipes is definitely not a marxist which gives as more clue for him to be a right wing. Interspersed amongst those significant events are the methods that the Bolsheviks used along their way to gaining power. I knew I was in for it when it took the author 15 pages at the beginning to decide on a year that the revolution really began. The Russian Revolution was tragic and evil, and set the stage for modern tota. Richard Pipes on Firing Line with William F. Buckley. Very long narrative history of the lead up and early stages of the Russian Revolution and civil war. The Russian Revolution is a very detailed (and I mean very detailed) look at the Russian revolution. Highly educational, but almost too much detail, making it at times hard to follow who was doing what when. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Because of his strong opinions, which show through in his writing, the book is more engaging than if he had worried about feigning objectivity. (And if... Mr. If you are very interested in the Russian Revolution, this book is the definitive account. But his obvious bias detracts from the scholarship. It gives a useful picture of how confused and fast-moving the situation was, particularly in 1918. The best account of the Russian Revolution--its fervor and its madness--that I have read. Be the first to ask a question about The Russian Revolution. I had some questions while reading this about the target audience here, my supposition is Russia experts and scholars. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes (1991, Trade Paperback) at the best online prices at eBay! The Russian Revolution was tragic and evil, and set the stage for modern totalitarianism and genocide. But because they had paid little attention to his work, Pipes wrote in his memoirs, he decided to turn the “tables on them and largely ignored their work as well.”. Richard Pipes has made a habit of being right, and about some of the biggest issues. the military, police, etc. Richard Pipes, Prosecutor of the Russian Revolution, Get a $20 discounted print subscription today, The CIA’s Secret Global War Against the Left. In Vixi: Memoirs of a Non-Belonger, Pipes attempted to portray himself as a nonconformist outsider. (Firing Line via YouTube) He approached Soviet history like a prosecutor. Pipes thesis, largely a consensus view among historians now, is that the revolution was not a revolution at all, but a coup d’état. In an era of brutality, class violence against the Romanovs and the wealthy was particularly galling to Pipes, though mass violence against ordinary Russians was not. Pipes taught at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1996. It was a great read, but I had to knock a star off for sheer length. He is the author of numerous books and essays on Russia, past and present, including Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime. Read More Books in 2021 with the Goodreads Reading Challenge. Recently Sold. I thought that Richard Pipes' coverage of the transformation of old to new Russia was one of the best that I have ever read and very well researched. Pipes wrote an exhaustively detailed and quite gripping account of the Russian Revolution, from the time of the first Duma government through 1918. Our new issue – on the incoming Biden administration – will be out soon. Unfortunately, however, Pipes cannot separate his political and moral revulsion from his role as an historian, and his tendentiousness mars what is otherwise a very valuable history. Pipes also attributed great power to propaganda. The most clear-eyed portrayal of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Pipes explores the deep roots of the Russian Revolution and follows it all the way to its horrifying culmination in the Red Terror. Finally finished this one! Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published Because of his strong opinions, which show through in his writing, the book is more engaging than if he had worried about feigning objectivity. I am not an apologist for the USSR; it was an evil and despo. Some of Pipes’s allegations were so preposterous, wrote Kenez, that the reader “wants to read a sentence a second time” because “perhaps the ‘prosecutor’ is simply carried away with his own rhetoric.” Kenez rightfully challenges and ridicules many of Pipes’s claims: that Bolshevik ideology as nothing more than a thin cover for power-hungry people, that the April and June demonstrations were attempted Bolshevik “putches,” that the Bolsheviks deliberately initiated the civil war, that the Red terror was more violent than the White terror. Millions of soviets would die so the communist system could be sustained. The best history of the Russian Revolution. For after the collapse of the Provisional Government, left in place by the abdicated Tsar, the Bolsheviks were just one of many soviets and the way forward was the ballot box. Pipes and Figes are the best authors if you are interested in Russian History. Wow! Previously classified interviews with former Soviet officials found no evidence “to support arguments made by Richard Pipes” that the USSR thought they “could win” a nuclear war but instead show that “all of the strategic models developed by Soviet military experts had a defensive character and assumed a first strike by NATO.”, In Survival is not Enough, Pipes described “the unique ability of Communist regimes to impose tight control over their own domain while destabilizing the enemy.” This notion of Communists as master manipulators of the masses was not limited to Pipes’s writings on the Russian Revolution. Before the Revolution, Pipes’s hero Kornilov was sympathetic to the antisemitic Black Hundreds and during the war had talked incessantly about hanging “all those Guchkovs and Milyukovs.” But by August 1917, he had common cause with the liberals, as they both wanted to annihilate the Revolution. The strategic balance was determined “above all by the mentality and intentions of the people” controlling the nuclear arsenals. Yet Pipes’s primary concern in his memoirs was an advance on his book royalties for the translation rights of Russia Under the Old Regime, “which could have bought a modest country lodge, now sufficed for just two slices of pizza.”, “Many Russians thought as soon as they had discarded communism and declared themselves free-market democrats they wallow in riches: indeed, Yeltsin as much as promised them this on coming to power.” But instead, opined Pipes, “with the collapse of communism the entire social services net which they took for granted had vanished and they were on their own in an unfamiliar and bewildering world.”. The similarities are quite remarkable. Richard Pipes, who died on May 18 at the age of ninety-four, was a proud, ardent anticommunist.But this was the least interesting thing about him.. His anticommunist books represented his most banal work. But Pipes was and is from the hysterical school of anti-Communism, and that bias thoroughly permeates his work and measurably weakens it. After completing The Russian Revolution, Pipes compared himself to Chapman, translator of Homer, “the work that I was born to do is done.” One of Pipes’s former students, Peter Kenez, was less sympathetic, writing perhaps the most devastating Soviet studies reviews ever to appear. The most clear-eyed portrayal of Lenin and the Bolsheviks. I am not an apologist for the USSR; it was an evil and despotic regime. His approach to the Revolution, suggests Kenez, is to see “every event as a consequence of the sinister manipulation of revolutionaries implies that there is no point in examining the views and desires of ordinary people.” Parsing out contrary evidence, Pipes “mercilessly excludes every topic and bit of information” not relevant for the ‘prosecution.’” This meant that Pipes “has nothing to say about the emancipatory goals and legislation of the Bolsheviks.” His “hatred of the revolutionaries is so great” argues Kenez, that he ceases to be a historian and “becomes instead a prosecutor of revolutionaries.”. Harvard Institute for International Development, Revolution and Counterrevolution: Class Struggle in a Moscow Metal Factory. It is detailed to the point of tedium. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. As Mike Haynes insists, “Without major assistance from outside, these counterrevolutionaries would have had neither the confidence nor the means to continue their war.”, Though all his books were written from the perspective of the far right, Pipes nevertheless attempted to feign objectivity in his memoirs, writing that his “historical methodology is deliberately eclectic” because “events are propelled by diverse forces.… I approach sources with an open mind and expect them to guide me. Written in the late 1980s, before later scholars had increased access to the Russian archives after the fall of the USSR, its thoroughness is remarkable. It gives a useful picture of how confused and fast-moving the situation was, particularly in 1918. This political policing was a Russian invention; Russia was the first country to have two police systems, one to protect the state from its citizens, and the other to protect the citizens from each other. I've no doubt reading this book will not be a priority, but if you get a chance, just read the chapter on the murder of the czar and his family. He completed his bachelor's degree at Cornell in 1946 and earned his doctorate at Harvard Univers. However it is certainly one of the more exhaustive narrative accounts that is available on re-enforced bookshelves. It is excellent narrative with good insight on the fragility of the Bolshevik hold on the reigns of power, and how that played into the decision to elimin. There is a constant emphasis on the role of the non-Russian nationalities during the civil war, to such an extent that the book could have been more honestly called "The non-Russian Revolution", Russians being a passive lot upon whom revolution in Pipes account is visited by Czechs, Estonians and Latvians upon Russia, all of whom were using revolution to achieve national independence . Cold warriors moved easily between intelligence jobs and academic posts. It has an anti-Bolshevik slant, but never claimed to be objective; Pipes clearly intended to argue that the Revolution was actually an intellectual coup d’etat carried out through terrorist acts. The family later moved to Warsaw but were forced to flee the Nazi invasion in 1939. As this a concise history of the russian revolution richard pipes, it ends stirring living thing one of the favored books a concise history of the russian revolution richard pipes collections that we have. However, if you are looking for a comprehensive history of the Russian Revolution, this is absolutely the book that I would recommend. Dr. Conservative pundits have incorrectly depicted Pipes as a champion for democracy —obviously without having read this book. More talented cold warriors would occasionally admit the obvious, such as Robert Conquest, who conceded that the Bolsheviks won “the bulk of the working classes in the cities.” Pipes, however, wrote only for the ideologically converted and rarely made factual concessions that undermined his political mission. Pipes, Richard; Pipes, Richard. In 1976, Pipes led a group of military and foreign policy experts, known as Team B, to counter the CIA’s own Team A, in an analysis of the Soviet Union’s military strategy and the supposed “strike first” threats they posed to the United States. Catalyst, a new journal published by Jacobin, is out now. First time I have read a book focusing on the revolution and I felt like having more background int he subject would have made this a bit easier to understand. 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