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Russia: a short history (2002)

di Abraham Ascher

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793336,726 (3.58)Nessuno
This is a concise history of the Revolution of 1905, a critical juncture in the history of Russia when several possible paths were opened up for the country. By the end of that year, virtually every social group had become active in the opposition to the autocracy, which was on the verge of collapse. Only the promise of reform, in particular the formation of a parliament (Duma) that would participate in governing the country, enabled to old order to survive. For some eighteen months the opposition and the Tsarist regime continued to struggle for supremacy, and only in June 1907 did the government reassert its authority. It drastically changed the relatively liberal electoral law, depriving many citizens of the vote. Although the revolution was now over, some institutional changes remained intact. Most notably, Russia retained an elected legislature and political parties speaking for various social and economic interests. As a result, the autocratic system of rule was undermined, and the fate of the political and social order remained uncertain.… (altro)
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Attempted Uprising 1904-1907 in Imperial Russia
A review of the Stanford University Press Kindle eBook (June 2, 2004), released simultaneously with the hardcover edition.

A peasant of Saratov summed up for us better than anyone else the net result of the last five years: `Five years ago there was belief and fear [of the Government]; now the belief is gone, and only the fear remains."


I am in the process of assisting in the copy editing of the 3rd Volume of the English translation of Anton Hansen Tammsaare's epic Tõde ja õigus III (1931) (Estonian for "Truth and Justice"). The book centres on the events of the 1905 Revolution in Estonia and the continued life of Indrek Paas (carrying on from Indrek: Volume II of the Truth and Justice Pentalogy (orig 1929), first introduced as a son of the peasant farmer Andres Paas in Vargamäe: Volume I of the Truth and Justice Pentalogy (orig 1926).

I decided to read several other books in relation to this for additional background information as I was only vaguely familiar with the 1905 Revolution previously, unsuccessful as it was. I started with this short history by Abraham Ascher, which is condensed from his earlier 2 Volumes of The Revolution of 1905: Russia in Disarray (1988) and The Revolution of 1905: Authority Restored (1992).

I didn't expect there to be all that much about Estonia in the book and it was really only mentioned briefly, usually in the context of the Baltic Provinces (Estland, Livland, Kurland at the time of Tsarist Russia) in general. Almost all of the mentions are in my Kindle Notes and Highlights. I did note that Reval (the pre-1918 name for the capital city of Tallinn) was misspelt as "Revel" (sic) as was "Tallin" (sic) itself. That sort of carelessness did make me doubt Ascher's thoroughness though.

See image at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3b/Gapon_crowd_1905.jpg
Image of the marching crowd led by Father Gapon on Bloody Sunday as it faced the Tsarist soldiers and cossacks. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Otherwise, this was a good overview of the history of the various strikes and uprisings which began in late 1904. The most famous early incident is probably the Bloody Sunday massacre in Petersburg on January 9, 1905 (Dates in Tsarist Russia were according to the Julian Calendar at the time, most of the rest of the world having adopted the Gregorian Calendar which made it January 22, 1905 elsewhere). Events led to Tsar Nicholas II proclaiming an October Manifesto in late 1905 in an effort to quell the rebellion. Among other reforms, this promised to allow the election of a Duma of people's deputies to work with the previously autocratic government. In practice, the Duma was subverted constantly and disbanded until it was obvious by 1907 that Nicholas II did not intend to share power at all. This of course led to fateful consequences in 1917.

So overall this was a 3 rating. For the slimness of the Baltic content and its misspellings it would be a 2.

Soundtrack
A song called "1905" by the Estonian band Sõpruse puiestee (Estonian: Friendship Boulevard) can be heard on YouTube here in Estonian and here in Russian.
A translation of the lyrics in English are below:
Next to the factories where the grass grew
We stood and held each other's hands
Next to the factories -
Where the villagers drove down the hill with carts.

A strike started next to the factories this year
And I couldn't find a job
Next to the factories, you suffocated in the living room
On this curfew night.

Next to the factories where the grass grew
We stood and held each other's hands
Was there any hope at all next to the factories
You answered: "what a beautiful day."

CHORUS (Sung after each verse above)

We weren't standing under the flags
We were not hit by bullets
We dyed the sheets red on the bed
With the blood that came from your lips.
( )
  alanteder | Jan 20, 2023 |
Make sure you read the 2017 revised version. It's 30% longer than the first edition. It is exactly what I wanted, a book about the history of Russia. There were a lot of gaps in my knowledge and this book was perfect to fill them. It's too bad it ends in a giant WW3 cliffhanger (joke). ( )
  parzivalTheVirtual | Mar 22, 2020 |
Abraham Ascher, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, has covered the whole sweep of Russian history in only 252 pages, from the rise of Kiev in the 9th century to the early 21st century. In painting with such a broad brush, he must omit a lot of detail, but for the general reader, this book is an excellent introduction to Russia’s past.

It is difficult to summarize a book that is itself a summary, so I will just point out a few of Ascher’s observations that I found enlightening. Because of its enormous size (nearly three times that of the United States), Russia sits astride both Europe and Asia. One organizing principle of Ascher’s book is how this geography causes Russia’s personality (if a state can be said to have one) to be split between East and West.

The Mongol invasions of the 13th century cut Russia off from significant influence from the West for hundreds of years. As such, “Russia remained largely unaffected by the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, the scientific revolution of the seventeenth, and the Enlightenment of the eighteenth, all movements that promoted individualism and rationalism.” Ivan IV (the “Terrible”), who ruled in the mid-16th century, was essentially an Oriental Potentate. Only with the accession of Peter the Great in the late 17th century did Russia begin to look to the West for inspiration.

Since the book was first published in 2002, the author has little to say about the regime of Vladimir Putin. The book concludes with a discussion of Boris Yeltsin’s reign and with the proposition that the “central concern of Russian political leaders and intellectuals…is [whether Russia is a] part of the West or does it belong culturally to the East?” It may have seemed that the fall of communism in 1991 represented a movement toward the West, but Ascher observes, “Putin has steadily moved Russia back to the Byzantine tradition,” which he characterizes as one marked by “irrationality, mystery, and contempt for society.” Ascher also refers to Putin’s “vulgarity and his disdain for the democratic process.” Regardless of whether those observations have any grounding in truth, it is clear Ascher is contemptuous of Putin, and unlikely to give him credit for any advances the country has made under his leadership.

Ascher closes with the observation:

“It will be some time—perhaps decades—before we know whether the Western traditions of freedom of the individual and private property, which animated the revolution 1991, have struck deep roots in Russia, providing the country with the preconditions for a stable democracy and flourishing economy.”

In that paragraph, Ascher also reveals his biases toward a Western concept of what constitutes a good society. While Americans may presume that all countries around the world would love to have a capitalist democracy if only they could, the fact is that populations abroad, particularly in countries that prize community over individualism, have repeatedly rejected this assumption.

Vladimir Putin enjoys an enormous popularity in Russia. The people, especially in the big cities, have embraced capitalism with enthusiasm, but they may not represent the entire country. The next several years will be very interesting.

Evaluation: This overview of Russian history is useful, but read it with caution: it has a strong Western bias, which colors the author's analysis.

(JAB) ( )
  nbmars | Jan 3, 2018 |
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This is a concise history of the Revolution of 1905, a critical juncture in the history of Russia when several possible paths were opened up for the country. By the end of that year, virtually every social group had become active in the opposition to the autocracy, which was on the verge of collapse. Only the promise of reform, in particular the formation of a parliament (Duma) that would participate in governing the country, enabled to old order to survive. For some eighteen months the opposition and the Tsarist regime continued to struggle for supremacy, and only in June 1907 did the government reassert its authority. It drastically changed the relatively liberal electoral law, depriving many citizens of the vote. Although the revolution was now over, some institutional changes remained intact. Most notably, Russia retained an elected legislature and political parties speaking for various social and economic interests. As a result, the autocratic system of rule was undermined, and the fate of the political and social order remained uncertain.

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