Bolshevism - The Road to Revolution

A History of the Bolshevik Party by Alan Woods

There have been many books and potted histories of Russia, either written from an anti-Bolshevik perspective, or its Stalinist mirror image, which paint a false account of the rise of Bolshevism. For them, Bolshevism is either an historical "accident" or "tragedy". Or it is portrayed erroneously as the work of one great man (Lenin) who marched single-minded towards the October Revolution. Alan Woods, in rejecting these "theses", reveals the real evolution of Bolshevism as a living struggle to apply the methods of Marxism to the peculiarities of Russia. Using a wealth of primary sources, Alan Woods uncovers the fascinating growth and development of Bolshevism in pre-revolutionary Russia.

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For convenience the parts are divided up into a number of pages: these divisions do not appear in the printed book.

Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Explanatory Notes

Part One:
THE BIRTH OF RUSSIAN MARXISM

The Death of an Autocrat
'Going to the People'
'Land and Freedom'

The Birth of Russian Marxism
The Emancipation of Labour Group
Impasse of Narodnism

Combined and Uneven Development
The Period of Small Circles
From Propaganda to Agitation
The Jewish Workers' Movement
The Petersburg League of Struggle
The Turn of the Tide

'Legal Marxism'
Lenin and the Group for the Emancipation of Labour
Economist Controversy
Rabochaya Mysl'
Bernstein's Revisionism

The First Congress of the RSDLP
Rabocheye Dyelo
The Birth of Iskra
What is to be done?
A new Awakening
Tensions on the Editorial Board
The Economists in Retreat

The Second Congress
The Real Meaning of the 1903 Split
Confusion in the Ranks

Rosa Luxemburg
War with Japan
The Mensheviks and the Zemstvo Campaign
Trotsky's Break with the Mensheviks
Splits in the Majority

Part Two:
THE FIRST RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

The 9th January, 1905
'Zubatovism'
Father Gapon
The Putilov Strike
Bloody Sunday

Revolution Begins
The Shidlovsky Commission
United Front
Lenin and the 'Committee-Men'
The Third Congress
Conflicts at the Congress
How the Party Financed Itself

Revolutionary Flood Tide
The Bulygin Duma
The October Strike and the Soviet
The Bolsheviks and the Soviet
The October Manifesto

'Nicholas the Bloody'
Opening up the Party
The Party Press
Trotsky in 1905

The Moscow Uprising
Defeat

Part Three:
THE PERIOD OF REACTION

'Woe to the Vanquished
The Struggle Against Unemployment
Revolutionary Tactics
Reunification
The debate on the Land Question

Bolshevism and Menshevism
The Peasants' Revolt
To Boycott, or Not to Boycott?
Parliamentary Illusions

The Duma Dissolved
The Question of 'Guerrilla War'
Lenin's Attitude to Guerrillaism
The Stolypin Reaction
Crises and Splits
The Second Duma

The Fifth (London) Congress
The Debate on the Bourgeois Parties
The Permanent Revolution
Lenin's Position
The 3rd June Coup

Liquidationism and Otzovism
Mood of Intelligentsia
Alien Ideas
The Bolsheviks Split
'We have no people at all'
The Pro-Party Mensheviks
Tensions in Proletary

Trotsky and Conciliationism
The January Plenum
'Unity' Breaks Down
On the Eve

Part Four:
THE REVIVAL

A Brief Interregnum
Mass Work Under Conditions of Reaction
The Prague Conference
The Provocateur Malinovsky

After the Conference
A New Awakening
Lenin and Pravda
Elections to the Fourth Duma
Bolsheviks in the Duma
Tactics in the Duma

Revolutionary Upswing
'The Masses Have Now Grown Up'
Split in the Duma Group
The National Question
Lenin on the National Question

The Balkan Wars
The Gathering Storm
The Bolsheviks' Influence Grows
The Bolsheviks on the Eve of the War

Part Five:
THE WAR YEARS

The Collapse of the Second International
The Social Roots of Chauvinism
Tendencies in Russian Social Democracy
Lenin's Position

The Mood of the Working Class
The Party Decimated
The Duma Faction
Vacillations Among the Bolsheviks
The 'Left' Bolsheviks

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
The Trial of Bolshevik Duma Deputies
Closed Frontiers
German Intrigues

How Did the Party Survive?
Catastrophe at the Front
Bolsheviks in the Armed Forces
The Liberals Begin to Stir

The Turn of the Tide
Crisis of Tsarism
Change of Mood
Work Among Women
Pacifist Gestures

The Zimmerwald Conference
The Kienthal Conference

Part Six:
THE YEAR OF REVOLUTION

The February Revolution
The Bolsheviks in February

The Mensheviks and the February Revolution
The Bolsheviks and the Provisional Government
Lenin and Trotsky in 1917

Lenin Rearms the Party
The First Coalition

'All Power to the Soviets'
The June Days

The July Days
After the July Events
Lenin Changes His Mind
Trotsky and the Bolshevik Party

The Kornilov Rebellion
The Struggle for the Masses
Tactics of the Insurrection
Crisis of Leadership

The Question of the Soviet Congress
The Final Chapter
The Seizure of Power
Was October a Coup?
The Triumph of Bolshevism
The Struggle at the Congress

Bibliography
Index of Names

"Bolshevism: The Road to Revolution" is intended as a companion volume to Ted Grant's "Russia: from Revolution to Counter-Revolution".

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