Russia's peasants in revolution and civil war : citizenship, identity, and the creation of the Soviet state, 1914-1922 /

This impressive monograph explains how peasants of the Viatka region "experienced and helped guide the course of Russia's war and revolution," and why most agreed to live under the new regime. Based on a wide array of archival sources and Russian-language periodicals, this is a remarkable work of scholarship. Readers will profit from the author's discussion of how peasants used the revolution to realize their hopes of "freedom, equality, brotherhood, and full participation." Most will also find reasonable Retish's conclusion that "most of Viatka's peasants ultimately decided to accept the Bolshevik state because it promoted their interests." The author's enthusiastic claim that this work paves the way for "a fundamentally new understanding of the Russian Revolution and the foundations of the Soviet Union" has some merit. However, the assertion that the famine of the early 1920s "brought peasant and state closer together by building a personal relationship as the populace reached out to the official elite for aid" seems overstated in light of the actual fate of the thousands in Viatka who starved, migrated, and perished. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty. K. C. O'Connor Gonzaga University