Lenin: A Political Life: Volume 2: Worlds in Collision

455 Pages·1995·44.463 MB·English

by  Robert Service (auth.)

LENIN: A POLITICAL LIFE
By the same author and published by Palg rave Macmillan
THE BOLSHEVIK PARTY IN REVOLUTION
A Study in Organisational Change
LENIN: A POLITICAL.LIFE
Volume I The Strengths of Contradiction
Volume 3 The Iron Ring
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION, 1900-27
LENIN: A POLITICAL
LIFE
Volume 2
Worlds in Collision
ROBERT SERVICE
Second Edition
M
MACMILLAN
© Robert Service 1991
Foreword to the Second Edition © Robert Service 1995
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First edition 1991
Second edition 1995
Published by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-64062-3 ISBN 978-1-349-13785-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13785-5
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95
To Adele
Contents
List of Plates X
Notes and Acknowledgements XI
Foreword to the Second Edition xix
I All or Nothing: 1910--1912 I
Conflicts in the Central Committee I
The Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party in Russia 6
Thoughts on Russia 13
The Prague Conference 17
Russians and Poles (and Latvians, Lithuanians and
Jews) 24
Leisure and its Discontents 29
2 Storms before the Storm: 1912-1914 34
Krakow 34
The 'National Question' 41
Scandals 47
Debates on War and Imperialism 51
The International Socialist Bureau 57
Russia in 1914 61
3 Ad Extirpanda: 1914-1915 67
The July Crisis 67
Arrest and Release 71
Announcing a Policy 75
'The Collapse of the Second International' 82
Struggles Among Bolsheviks: 1915 86
The Notebooks on Philosophy' 90
4 War's Divisions: 1915-1916 97
Attachments and Detachments 97
The Zimmerwa1d Conference 101
Vll
viii Contents
Lenin, Bukharin and Pyatakov 108
'Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism' 113
Policies for Russia 118
Leadership and the Russian Bolsheviks 122
5 Unsealed Messages: 1916 to April 1917 128
The Russian Empire on the Brink 128
The Kienthal Conference 133
'Marxism on the State' 139
The February Revolution 143
Returning Leader 149
'The April Theses' 155
6 There Is Such a Party! April to July 1917 161
Fighting for Bolshevism 161
The Seventh All-Russian Conference 169
Against Dual Power 177
A Leader on Campaign 183
The July Days 190
Escape to the Lakes 196
7 The Fire Next Time: July to September 1917 201
Considerations on Party Strategy 201
Kerenski and Kornilov 209
'The State and Revolution' 216
Political Projects 223
Nationality Projects 228
Economic and Social Projects 232
8 To All the Peoples: September to October 1917 239
International Projects 239
The German Connection 247
The Bolshevik Central Committee 251
The Overthrow of the Government 257
The Second Congress of Soviets 263
First Week, First Decrees 266
Contents ix
9 The View from Petrograd: November to December 1917 272
Negotiations on Power 272
The Spread of Soviet Power 279
Secession and Federation 283
Political Repression 289
Germany and the Allies 293
Darkening Thoughts 298
10 The Obscene Peace: January to March 1918 303
The Constituent Assembly 303
Sovnarkom's .Chairman 310
The Formulation of Policies 313
The Central Committee in Dispute 317
Party Polemicist 322
The Seventh Party Congress 326
Notes 336
Index 404
List of Plates
I. Lenin in January 1910
2. Lenin after release from prison in Poland, August 1914
3. Aged-looking Lenin goes mountain walking in Galicia, Summer
1914
4. A rejuvenated Lenin not long before leaving Switzerland for the
last time
5. Lenin and his fellow travellers reach Stockholm, April 1917
6. Lenin delivers 'The April Theses', 4 April 1917
7. Lenin in disguise, July 1917
8. The Central Committee elected at the Sixth Party Congress
9. The Military-Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet
after the October seizure of power
10. Proclamation of the Provisional Government's overthrow,
25 October 1917
II. Lenin: official portrait, January 1918
12. Lenin and members of the Sovnarkom Coalition
13. Poster including both Lenin and the Mayor of Cork among the
seven greatest men in the world
14. Anti-Bolshevik poster saying that 'The Federal Soviet Mon
archy' had promised 'Bread, Peace, Freedom' but had given
'Famine, War, The Cheka'
15. The magazine Punch considers the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
16. Lenin goes for a stroll in Moscow, Spring 1918
All photographs reproduced with the kind permission of the School
of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, except
no. 15, reproduced with kind permission of Punch Publications.
X