War and Society in the Nineteenth Century Russian Empire ed. by J.G. Purves, D.A. West (review)

116 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW and notwithoutreason- thoughnot necessarily goodreason.He wasnotquitethe pioneerin practical reformsthatSz6chenyi wasandhelackedtherevolutionary dan of Kossuth whosepoliticalwisdommatured,however,onlyafter he ceased beinga manof action.E6tv6swasnotendowedwith thepopularappealof De•k eitherand wasnot quiteequalto him in legalacumenin termsofjudicial and parliamentary proceedings. Yet there seemsto be no questionthat he wasthe deepestpolitical thinker of thesefour men,a politicalscientist in the bestsense of the word. This comes outequally forcefully inhiswritings onproblems oftheHabsburg empire,on Hungarianreformlegislation, andin hisworkasa practical statesman of sincerity, moderation, firmness, andaboveallofconstructive ideas.E6tv6swastheonlyoneof the four who could read the signsof the time and understandthe problemsof HungarybothinrelationtotheHabsburg empireandbynecessity aspartofit.Much ofthisisbrought outveryclearly andwellinDr Body's monograph which, itmaywell beexpected, willbreakthegroundfor new,morecomprehensive research onE6tv6s in English.In thisrespectwe will alwaysremainindebtedto the author for his valuablepioneerstudy. ROBERT A. KANN Rutgers University WarandSociety i• the Nineteenth Century Russian Empire. Editedbyj.c..PtSRVES andD.^. WES•r. Toronto,NewReview Press, •972. PP.•92.$7.5ø paper. The manyimplications thatwarfarehasfor society areobvious enough,butthefact thatsociety in turn hasanenormous impactonthenatureandconduct of warisall toooftenignored.Existing publicandofficialopinion,thenationaleconomy, ideologyandattitudes , transportation andgovernment institutions allhelpdeterminethe characterof warand, often,itsoutcome.War isonlypartlya matterof strategy, of generalpittedagainst general,politician against politician, soldieragainst soldier; it isalsoawidestrataof inherentstrengths andweaknesses of onesociety pittedagainst another.In an attemptto demonstrate thisin thecase of Russia, andat theriskof arguingthatit was,afterall,thechicken thatcamebeforetheegg,theeditors of this volumemakea strongcase totheeffectthatit issociety thatshapes war. The collectionisa uniqueone in that itscontributorswereall participants in a seminarcourseentitled'War and Society in •9th CenturyRussia,' whichhasbeen conducted for thelastfewyears atMcGillUniversity byProfessor MilosMladenovic. The fifteen essays coversuchencompassing topicsas military technology (J.G. Purves), religionandthearmy(H. Fil'),matters of foreignpolicy andtheeconomic milieuof war (A. PidhainyandJ. Desmarais), theinter-relationof the stateand the military(D.A. West).Ideological interpretations ofwarandsociety arethefocalpoint of several essays, amongthempointsof viewfrom Russian Slavophiles (O. Smal), revolutionaries (D. Fattal),and militarytheoreticians (P. Spilberg).There are also studies on theregionalaspects of war in the Russian empire,with specific attention giventotheUkraine(R.Serbyn),Finland(E.W. Laine),theBalkans (A.L. Smith),the Baltic (J.Knoppers), andHungary(P.Hidas).TheCrimean Warholds aspecial place in thecollection, andisdealtwithin severalstudies, themostimportantof whichare REVIEWS 117 essays thattouch upontherelationship ofBritish public opinion and'Russophobia' to thatparticular conflict (M. McMullenandJ. Soley). The contributions areof a moregeneral thanscholarly natureandthereinliesa gooddealof theirusefulness to students of nineteenth-century Russia. Theyare somewhat unevenin qualityandin writingstyle,andsomeare marredby typographical errors, buttheyareallinteresting andworthreading. A fewitems warrant special mention. Theeditors, West andPurves, provide themost clearly thought-out papers; Laine, McMullen, andSerbyn bringtothecollection themost interesting new 'asides' to oft described historical incidents. The unifyingthemeof thebook- the complementary andmutually decisive nature ofwarandsociety - ishandled well. Together, theessays provide aninteresting dimension tothestudy oftheRussian empire. J.L. BLACK LaurentianUniversity Lenin and the Comintern. Volume I. BRANKOLAZITCH and MILORAD M. DRACHKOVITCH. Stanford, HooverInstitution Press, Stanford University, •972.Pp.xiv,683.$•7.5o. Although theHoover Institution, which sponsored this work, isanything butpro-left in itsorientationtointernationalaffairs,LazitchandDrachkovitchhaveapproached thehistory oftheComintern inarestrained andscholarly spirit onthewhole. Most particularly theyhaverefrainedfrom mentioning oneof theobvious generalimplications of theirstudyfor thecurrentdebateonUnitedStates foreignpolicy:thatthe ColdWar did notoriginatesolely withthe capitalist powers, that the earlySoviet regimewasenthusiastically devotedto the goalof earlyrevolutionin the entire capitalist world, abettedasmuchaspossible by the SovietUnion. But then, it is probably sensible of theauthorsnottotakeup thisthemeexplicitly, for theneo-left revisionist writersonAmericanforeignpolicygenerallyshowlittleinterestin Soviet studies andlessin LeninandtheComintern,andare unlikelyto read thisbook.As for otherscholars, Lenin'srevolutionary hostilitytothebourgeois democratic world isnotlikelytobenews. Forthemthegreatmeritof thisbookislikelytobeitsclarity andcomprehensiveness, digesting alargebodyof primaryresearch material. There isa substantial historicalliterature on the Comintern, but a seriouslackof clear andthorough general works. Lazitch andDrachkovitch have begun torectify thisshortcoming, carrying theiraccount fromtheFirst WorldWartoearly•92•. A second volume isplanned tocontinue thestudy through therestof Lenin's career. The study begins withLeninandtheFirstWorldWar,withscant attention tohis prewar ideas onworldaffairs andparticipation intheSocialist International. This shortcoming probably should beforgiven inaworkofalmost 7oopages, although a good grounding inLenin's lifeandideas must beobtained somewhere asaprerequisite to a fruitfulreadingof Lazitch andDrachkovitch. The workthensurveys the founding oftheComintern in •9•9andtheinitialattempts atproletarian revolution incentralandeastern Europe.Two substantial chapters thendescribe thestructure andpersonnel of theearlyComintern, a well-researched andclearly-expounded contribution. ...