Istorik i revoliutsiia: Sbornik statei k 70-letiiu so dnia rozhdeniia Olega Nikolaevicha Znamenskogo (review)

Not long ago the study of the Russian revolutions of 1917 was practiced within narrow boundaries. Soviet historians often quoted Lenin, research topics were defined within tightly-defined limits, and theses had to conform to a specific party line. Those who did not follow these guidelines suffered politically and professionally. Since the advent of glasnost' in the mid-1980s and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, historians in the West have watched to see the new directions Russian historians have taken in their work. The current collection of essays in memory of Oleg Nikolaevich Znamenskii (1927–93), the former head of the Institute of Russian History of the Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg branch), demonstrates that while new areas of research have opened in the last ten years, the evolution of Russian historiography on 1917 proceeds at a fairly deliberate pace.

The collection showcases the talents and research of many of Znamenskii's former colleagues and students in St. Petersburg, including Nikolai Nikolaevich Smirnov, Boris Ivanovich Kolonitskii, and Vladimir Iur'evich Cherniaev, who also edit the volume. Kolonitskii is probably the best known in the West as the author of articles on political propaganda during 1917 and, most recently, the co-author with Orlando Figes of Interpreting the Russian Revolution.¹ The 19 other contributions display a wide range of new sources, although no startlingly new conclusions. Indeed, while seven of the authors in the present volume also contributed to a previous volume in honor of Znamenskii, the current collection is less unified thematically and seems generally more concerned with bringing new sources to light than with analyzing them in any great depth.² Nevertheless, these authors have moved well beyond the standard Soviet interpretations and demonstrate the variety—even extremes—of scholarship currently conducted on the Revolution.

The aim of the volume is, in the words of Smirnov, "to display the current resonance of the problems that O. N. Znamenskii studied" (5). To that end, a number of essays address two topics covered by Znamenskii's three monographs: the Constituent Assembly (and parliamentarianism in Russia in general), and the intelligentsia.³ Another set of essays is less clearly defined, exploring less well-studied questions, such as unemployment during the 1905 revolution, or examining previously untapped sources that shed new light on social and political life during 1917. As a whole, these essays expand the study of the Revolution in new and interesting ways, chipping away at, if not always directly challenging, old Soviet orthodoxies.

The book is divided into two main sections. The first, entitled "Historian of the Revolution," consists of three pieces that directly discuss Znamenskii and his work. Znamenskii emerges in this section as a powerful intellect and one of the most prominent historians of the Revolution working during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. As Smirnov is quick to point out in his introduction, however, Znamenskii was a product of his times (i.e., the Khrushchev "Thaw"), which led him to challenge the dominant historiography and open up new topics for study during the Brezhnev years. Thus, even during the 1960s and 1970s, Znamenskii moved the study of the Revolution in new directions. In his essay on Znamenskii's work on the Constituent Assembly, Andrei Borisovich Nikolaev argues that while Western scholars have tended to view Znamenskii's work on this topic as a typical example of Brezhnev-era history, he sought not only to examine an important episode in revolutionary history, but to uphold the principle of scientific truth.⁴ Igor' Pavlovich Leiberov and Sergei Ivanovich Potolov provide reminiscences of their work with Znamenskii and his role in historiographic debates in an apparent effort to demonstrate that Znamenskii anticipated glasnost' by about 20 years.

The second and much longer section of the book, "Revolution and Society," comprises 19 essays, most of...