Vladivostok. Far Eastern Book Publishing House. 1983. 231. p.
Much literature has already been devoted to the Great October Socialist Revolution, and yet many questions about the history of the establishment of Soviet power in the localities, especially in remote areas of the country, are still poorly understood. Publication of the monograph of the Director of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the USSR Academy of Sciences corresponding member. A. I. Krushanova is a prominent phenomenon in Soviet historiography. The book uses a wealth of concrete historical material to reveal the socio-economic and political background of the socialist revolution, comprehensively showing the process of bourgeois-democratic, and then socialist transformations in the Far East and Transbaikalia.
Analyzing the socio-economic development of this region in the era of imperialism, the author notes (p. 10-11) that the territories from Lake Baikal to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, from the Amur and Ussuri to the Arctic Ocean were inhabited by more than 80 nationalities and nationalities. These were small peoples of the North of the Paleoasiatic, Tungus-Manchu and Mongolian language groups. But the bulk of the region's inhabitants were Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. Through the work of its multinational population, the book emphasizes, the Far East, one of the richest regions in Russia, turned into a region with rapidly developing industry, transport, and trade. The author shows well the peculiarities of the agrarian system and the development of capitalism in the Far Eastern and Trans-Baikal villages.
The riches of Transbaikalia and the Far East attracted American and Japanese imperialists, who, making extensive use of international trade, tried to seize this region and turn it into a colony. The Revolutionary Proletariat of Russia under ru-
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under the leadership of the Leninist Party, he thwarted these plans. The victory of the socialist revolution and the establishment of Soviet power saved the small peoples of the Far East and Transbaikalia from cruel capitalist exploitation and extinction. This conclusion is justified by the entire content of the monograph.
The analysis of extensive documentary material allowed the author to make a significant contribution to the study of the size, composition and territorial distribution of the Far Eastern and Trans-Baikal proletariat on the eve of the October Revolution. A. I. Krushanov introduces the following more reasonable data on the number of workers in the Far East: in total, there were 245-250 thousand workers here, including 85.8 thousand in transport, 45.9 thousand in the gold industry, and the total number of workers in the Far East who worked in the Far East. in the fishing industry-33 thousand, in agricultural production-30 thousand (p. 62).
The author rightly focused on the role of Russian workers in rallying around the proletariat and its vanguard - the Bolshevik party of workers of all nationalities and nationalities living in Transbaikalia and the Far East. Together with the Russian workers, workers of the indigenous nationalities of the region worked. This ensured the maturation of the socio-economic and political prerequisites for the socialist revolution, made it possible to create a broad popular front, strengthen the alliance of the working class and the poorest peasantry, which played a decisive role in the struggle for the social and national liberation of all the oppressed and exploited.
The monograph comprehensively covers the revolutionary movement in the region, the activities of the local organizations of the RSDLP (b) that led it, the outstanding professional revolutionaries V. V. Kuibyshev, Ya. M. Sverdlov, M. V. Frunze and others who were in political exile in Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia, the great organizational work of the Bolsheviks among the workers, peasants, the poorest Cossacks, in military units, etc. establishing regular communication between the party organizations of Siberia and the Far East and with the center of the country. The author shows the difficulties that the Bolsheviks had to overcome, especially due to the fact that there were joint organizations of the RSDLP in the region until the autumn of 1917, and in Chita until March 1918. It took enormous efforts of the Bolsheviks to create independent Bolshevik organizations, which ensured the success of the struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution and the establishment of Soviet power in all the cities and villages of the region.
The book criticizes erroneous assessments of the activities of social-democratic organizations in the Far East and Transbaikalia in 1917, in particular the causes and consequences of the Bolsheviks ' long stay in joint organizations with the Mensheviks (Defencists) (p.111 - 112), and clarifies a number of factors from the history of Bolshevik organizations in the Far East (p. 112 - 113). The author examines in detail how, under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, workers, peasants, soldiers and sailors of the Far East waged a persistent struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution, which was clearly reflected in their order to their delegates to the Second All - Russian Congress of Soviets-to demand the immediate transfer of full power to the Soviets.
The author traces the process of the widespread establishment of Soviet power in the Far East and Transbaikalia in the period from November 1917 to March 1918, which took place in a sharp class struggle, under the conditions of continuous intervention by imperialist powers. The counter-revolutionary forces in Transbaikalia and the Far East (after the victory of the proletarian revolution in Central Russia, many representatives of the deposed exploiting classes and privileged classes fled here to the CER zone) received active support from the right SRS and Mensheviks, who, relying on the kulaks and the Cossack elite, launched an offensive against the Soviet government.
The monograph describes the titanic work of the Bolsheviks to establish and strengthen Soviet power in the region, resolutely repulse internal counterrevolution and prevent the invasion of foreign troops. The author examines the work of the Far Eastern Regional Bureau of the RSDLP (b) at the beginning of 1918, which ensured the coordination of the activities of state and military bodies - the Vladivostok Council of Workers', Soldiers 'and Peasants' Deputies and the Central Committee of the Siberian Flotilla, the protection of the port and city by sailors and ground revolutionary units. The course of creation in cities and rural areas is discussed in detail in the book
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areas of the Red Guard detachments that formed the backbone of the armed forces that smashed the combined forces of internal counter-revolution and interventionists; the activities of the revolutionary headquarters (it was subordinate to the military units of the garrison, Red Guard detachments and the Siberian Flotilla) to protect the revolutionary order in Vladivostok and its environs, as well as in Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk.
The book emphasizes that throughout the vast territory of the region, the basis of the revolutionary fighters ' detachments were workers (p. 144). This conclusion, based on the study of a huge documentary material, is very important for the subsequent development of the problem of the leading role of the working class in the victory of the socialist revolution and the defense of its gains.
The struggle for Soviet power in a number of places in the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Far East took place in fierce battles with counterrevolutionary forces that staged armed riots, accompanied by brutal reprisals against revolutionary workers and peasants. The difficulty of eliminating these protests, the author notes, was that the White Guards received assistance with weapons and ammunition from abroad. Nevertheless, counter-revolutionary riots in Blagoveshchensk, Chita and other cities were suppressed. The monograph clarifies the dates of the establishment of Soviet power in the lower reaches of the Amur, on the Okhotsk coast, Kamchatka, and in the northern part of Sakhalin (p. 156).
A significant place in the book is occupied by coverage of the first socialist transformations in the economy of the Far East and Transbaikalia. A special section examines the beginning of the construction of socialist culture, the creation of the Soviet school, and the role of Bolshevik newspapers in organizing the working masses to fight for the implementation of socialist transformations, which resulted in the strengthening of the military-political alliance of the working class with the poorest peasantry and the Cossacks.
Covering the preparation of the region's revolutionary forces to defend the Soviet state from international imperialism, which launched an armed intervention, and internal counter-revolution, which unleashed a civil war, A. I. Krushanov traces the process of strengthening state authorities and defense of the Soviet Far East, and convincingly shows that this region - an undivided part of the RSFSR-has become a reliable stronghold of socialism.
Not all sections of the book are written with the same depth and completeness. We should, for example, give a fuller account of the socio-economic transformations in the Far East and Transbaikalia in November 1917 - March 1918, and reveal their specific features (Chapter VI). The problem of the development of the socialist revolution in the local countryside requires special consideration. Since the monograph chronologically ends with the events of the spring of 1918, the author could continue to study the problems of defending the gains of the socialist revolution in the Far East and Transbaikalia during the Civil War in the future.
The peer-reviewed study will take its rightful place in Soviet historiography.
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