Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii Glossary and Abbreviations Used in Archival Citations xvii Introduction: Experiencing Russia's Civil War 1 PART ONE: POLITICS 1. Revolution on the Volga 15 2. Languages of Power: How the Saratov Bolsheviks Imagined Their Enemies 43 3. The Rise and Fall of the Saratov "Republic" 74 4. Cadres Resolve All: The Communists in Power 107 5. Co-optation amid Repression: The Revolutionary Communists and Other Socialist Parties in Saratov Province 142 PART TWO: SOCIETY AND REVOLUTIONARY CULTURE 6. A Community in Disarray, a Community in the Making 175 7. The Cultural Practices of Provincial Communism 208 8. Narratives of Self and Other: Saratov's Bourgeoisie 246 9. Not Seeing Like a State: The Red Guard Assault on Capital 282 10. Peasants in a Workers' Revolution 312 11. "Given His Class Position, a Worker Can Be Nothing but a Communist" 348 12. A Provincial Kronstadt, Another Tambov? 379 Conclusion 409 Bibliographical Essay 417 Index 424 The Bibliography for this book can be found in its entirety on the Princeton University Press website, www.pupress.princeton.edu/biblios/raleigh

Promotional Information

Experiencing Russia's Civil War is a comprehensive political, social, economic, and cultural history of the key Volga city of Saratov during the Russian Civil War. Its great virtue lies in its extraordinary breadth and depth. It is difficult to exaggerate its significance to historiography on the civil war era in Russia and to informed thinking about the Soviet experience generally. -- Alexander Rabinowitch, author of "The Bolsheviks Come to Power" and "Prelude to Revolution" This work will be the first of its kind on the Russian civil war. It is based on prodigious research using archival sources that were utterly off limits to scholars before 1990, from a city that was itself closed to foreigners. It is the first to take seriously the application of the 'cultural turn' to the history of the Russian revolution. Last but no less important, it will be the first comprehensive local study of the civil war. Raleigh has shown the rest of us how it should be done. -- Diane P. Koenker, author of "Moscow Workers and the 1917 Revolution" and coauthor of "Strikes and Revolution in Russia, 1917"

About the Author

Donald J. Raleigh is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He has edited and translated many volumes on Russian history and is the author of Revolution on the Volga.

Reviews

"By revealing the complexity of the civil war in one province, Raleigh's book will revitalize scholarly debate on the civil war."--S. A. Smith, Slavic Review "An excellent work that will become required reading for all students of this turbulent period in twentieth-century history."--Jack M. Lauber, History: Review of Books "This book makes an outstanding contribution to scholarship through its exhaustive and shrewd examination of new archival materials. It also makes imaginative and original use of language and ideology as tools of historical interpretation."--N.G.O. Pereira, American Historical Review "Very readable and convincingly argued, this book is a much needed and anticipated revelation of local experience of the Civil War. This jewel of Soviet studies is not to be missed by any student or scholar of the Soviet Union."--Irina Mukhina, Journal of Social History