3 Review(s)

Was October 1917 a coup d'etat or a social revolution? Writing as both a historian and political activist, Ernest Mandel vigorously reasserts the deep legitimacy of the Russian Revolution. He considers mistakes made by the Bolshevik leadership in 1917-21 and sets out lessons to be learnt.David Mandel's 'Factory Committees and Workers' Control in Petrograd in 1917' draws on Russian-language archives to tell the story from below. Petrograd workers did not dream at first of 'socialist experiments'. Factory committees met fierce resistance from owners, they were driven to take management into their own hands and to seek the nationalisation of industries. Common conceptions about the 'utopian' and 'anarchistic' impulses supposedly behind the October Revolution are reassessed and refuted.The introduction by Paul Le Blanc, provides a new evaluation of the events one century on. He discusses recent scholarship and debates, new ways of comprehending class, the centrality of women and that of ethnicity, race and national identity, as well as Lars Lih's reassessment of the role of Kamenev and Zinoviev.Paul Le Blanc considers 'what went right: the revolution that brought 'bread, peace and land' to millions, and 'what went wrong'. Were the Bolsheviks elitist, sectarian and authoritarian? He assesses what is still relevant today and what is not.