The Bolsheviks in Power

With new research and detailed analysis, this historical study reframes the October Revolution of 1917 and its terrible aftermath in the Russian capitol.

A major contribution to the historiography of twentieth century Russia, The Bolsheviks in Power shines a revealing spotlight on the fateful first year of Soviet rule in Petrograd. It examines events that profoundly shaped the Soviet political system that endured through generations.


Drawing largely from previously inaccessible Soviet archives, Alexander Rabinowitch demolishes standard interpretations of the origins of Soviet authoritarianism by demonstrating that the Soviet system evolved ad hoc as the Bolsheviks struggled to retain political power amid spiraling political, social, economic, and military crises. The book covers issues such as the rapid fall of influential moderate Bolsheviks, the formation of the dreaded Cheka, the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, the Red Terror, the national government's flight to Moscow, and the subsequent rivalry between Russia's new and old capitals.