Where the Revolution Failed

The 1917 Bolshevik coup d’etat is arguably the most important event of our century. As historian Richard Pipes has written, “had there not been a Russian Revolution, there would very likely have been no National Socialism; probably no Second World War and no decolonization; and certainly no Cold War, which once dominated our lives.”

Yet, we can hardly do justice to such a momentous historical event between the covers of this magazine; that work needs to be left for historians like Pipes. So we decided to turn our attention, on the 80th anniversary of this event, to that which the Revolution sought to annihilate, but which has survived nonetheless.

Most deplorably, the Revolution took lives. It murdered, exiled and imprisoned millions of innocent souls, whose absence will forever be felt, like a gaping hole in the mind and spirit of Russia and our world.

One of the first targets of the Revolution’s organized murder campaigns was the middle class, such as it was in Russia at the time. The kulaks and merchants were ruthlessly “eliminated as a class” in the 1930s. But, as Anna Hoare writes in our cover story (starting on page 8), 60 years later Russia’s merchants and “petty-bourgeois” are sprouting up across Russia.

The Revolution also took minds. Its ruthless totalitarianism sought to control the lives and minds of its subjects like no regime previous. Literature, art and science all became tools of State Power. Some overtly fought against this invasion; most perished in the process. But 35 years ago this month, one long-suffering teacher of physics from Ryazan, upon the approval of the State’s First Secretary himself, published a short book about life in Stalin’s camps. It would break The Lie wide open, catapulting its author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, to the status of Moral Beacon and State Enemy #1, leading to his expulsion from the USSR 12 years later. In 1994, Solzhenitsyn returned to his de-communized homeland, to decidedly mixed reviews. We examine the fascinating story of Solzhenitsyn and his impact in contributions by Roy Medvedev and Edward Ericson (see page 22).

Thanks to an odd twist of archival fate, we also offer this month an excursion into the minds of some of the early Bolshevik leaders (which the Revolution later devoured), by way of caricatures they drew of one another. This is a truly fascinating collection, published here for the first time outside Russia (page 17).

Finally, without relation to the anniversary of the Revolution, William Brumfield takes us this month on the last stop – Totma – of his tour of Northern Russian Towns (page 31).

* * * * *

Beginning with the December issue of Russian Life, we will be instituting a change we would like readers to be aware of in advance. Russian Life will now publish combined December/January and June/July issues. These issues will be larger than our normal monthly issues and this new publishing schedule will allow us to slowly expand the magazine’s monthly size, provide even better, in-depth stories, and continue to improve the magazine in all other respects in the months ahead. Please note that this change will not affect your current subscription end date.

We are excited by the opportunities and challenges this change will present and look forward to giving you bigger and better issues in the months ahead!