Canadian Slavonic Papers

Russia and the Origins of the First World War by D. C. B. LievenReview by: Richard K. DeboCanadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, Vol. 26, No. 4 (December 1984), pp.362-363Published by: Canadian Association of SlavistsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40868344 .Accessed: 14/06/2014 10:55

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362 1 Canadian Slavonic Papers December 1984

D. C. B. Lieven. Russia and the Origins of the First World War. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983. 213 pp. $25.00.

This book is a valuable study of the Russian role in the origins of the Great War. It is not traditional diplomatic history. Instead, Lieven focuses on the men who made Russian foreign policy and the multi-faceted context in which they worked. He examines their education, assumptions, and values as well as the way they were influenced by the many pressures exerted upon them. They sought to preserve Russia as a great power in a period of acute international tension and viewed Germany as their primary enemy. This led to a debate between those who argued that "the best way to keep the Germans peaceful and reasonable was to deter them from aggression by a display of Russian power and Anglo-Franco-Russian unity" and a second group who believed "that Russian efforts should be directed at turn- ing Germany westward towards a struggle with Britain for maritime supremacy" (pp. 3-4). The latter course demanded a subordination of Russian interests to those of Germany, and support for it diminished as the extent of German ambition became known in St. Petersburg. By 1914 most of those responsible for Russian foreign policy subscribed to the doctrine of deterrence, but in practice it failed to prevent Germany from seeking to overturn the European balance of power. Despite this failure, Lieven defends the policy of deterrence. It seemed "justified by Europe's experience since 1871" and "rational to believe that although Germany might be happy to push around opponents too weak to fight, she would hardly risk her prosperity and indeed existence in a war with a coalition of European powers" (pp. 100-101). Lieven adds that the alternative policy was "by no means without risk" (p. 100) - an astute observation which could have been buttressed with reference to 1918 when the Bolsheviks, through sheer necessity, adopted it in a desperate attempt to maintain their hold on Russia. Dependence on Germany threatened to convert Russia into an object of great power rivalry and an immediate candidate for partition.

This work, in fact, is filled with astute observations. Lieven, for example, demolishes the argument put forward by German expansionists in defence of a preventive war against Russia before its rapidly growing industrial and military power threatened the existence of the Reich. Lieven denies the premise of this argument. Russia was not about to become "a larger and more powerful variation on the theme of expansionist militarism" (p. 136) as exemplified by the German empire. Nationalism did not have the same strength in Russia as in Germany and, in fact, had already begun to corrode the tsar's multinational empire. Moreover, with the exception of the Straits, Russia was a territorially satiated power. She possessed within her empire all the resources necessary for indefinite economic growth. Russian industrialists, therefore, were primarily concerned with pre- serving their domestic market from European domination. Lieven also argues, quite reasonably, that if the Russians had sought hegemony in Europe the other powers would have turned against them in the same way they turned against Germany.

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Vol. xxvi, No. 4 Book Reviews | 363

Lieven has based his work on a wide range of unpublished Austrian, British, and French sources as well as private papers held in Western and Soviet archives. It is a well written book which fills a large hole in the available literature on late imperial Russia.

Richard K. Debo, Simon Fraser University

Stephen A. Smith. Red Petrograd: Revolution in the Factories 1917-18. New York (Cambridge and London, UK): Cambridge University Press, 1983. x, 347 pp. $47.50.

Revolution seen from below, a recent trend with respect to Russia, presents fresh insights into the dynamic of the revolutionary process. In this study what Sukhanov called "high policy" is ignored, attention being directed towards the sociology of industrial workers in Petrograd and their activities at factory level in 1917. Koen- ker, Mandel, and Hasegawa have all delved into the activities of Russian proleta- rians in 1917, but none with the empathy demonstrated by Smith. He explores the impact of the revolution on factory life during 1917 and early 1918, his central theme being the struggle of the workers to abolish the autocratic order of the tsarist factory, their efforts to establish workers* control of production, and their groping attempts to reorganize life.

Ultra-modern, large-scale production units, foul living conditions, and harsh labour discipline combined with wartime overcrowding to create an explosive mixture as noxious as the fumes in state munitions works which turned women workers' skins yellow. Workers' budgets, as Smith demonstrates, tight at the best of times, were strained by wartime inflation, despite rises in wages. Strikes began, sporadically at first, yet increasing rapidly. A "league table" of three "divisions" is detected according to the tendency of different works to use the strike weapon. The first league consisted of private metal industries in the Vyborg District. Government-owned factories were under military discipline, which rendered strikes impossible.

Among Smith's many neat touches is an extended investigation of "carting- out," that is the habit of wheeling managers out of the factory gates in wheel- barrows and dumping them in the street. I had always found this intriguing. Smith provides an explanation: there was a deep symbolism in the action, an affirmation of the workers' dignity as human beings and a ritual humiliation of those who had deprived them of this dignity. Torgovo-promyshlennaia gazeta compared it to tear- ing off an army officer's badge of rank, as conscript soldiers were doing at the front.

The activities of factory committees, from seizing control over production to organizing geographical excursions and brass band concerts, are given a good deal of attention. The author denies that there was a strong syndicalist element in

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Article Contentsp. 362p. 363

Issue Table of ContentsCanadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, Vol. 26, No. 4 (December 1984), pp. 283-419Front MatterEDITOR'S NOTESaltykov, Miliutin, and Maikov: A Forgotten Circle [pp. 283-295]Persten': Baratynskii's Fantastic Tale [pp. 296-306]Ivan Franko and Mass Ukrainian Emigration to Canada [pp. 307-317]BIBLIOGRAPHYCanadian Publications on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe for 1983 [pp. 318-350]

REVIEW ARTICLERecent Literature on Soviet Law [pp. 351-355]

BOOK REVIEWSReview: untitled [pp. 356-357]Review: untitled [pp. 357-358]Review: untitled [pp. 358-359]Review: untitled [pp. 359-360]Review: untitled [pp. 360-361]Review: untitled [pp. 362-363]Review: untitled [pp. 363-364]Review: untitled [pp. 364-366]Review: untitled [pp. 366-367]Review: untitled [pp. 367-368]Review: untitled [pp. 369-370]Review: untitled [pp. 370-371]Review: untitled [pp. 371-372]Review: untitled [pp. 372-373]Review: untitled [pp. 373-374]Review: untitled [pp. 375-376]Review: untitled [pp. 376-377]Review: untitled [pp. 377-378]Review: untitled [pp. 379-380]Review: untitled [pp. 380-381]Review: untitled [pp. 381-382]Review: untitled [pp. 382-383]Review: untitled [pp. 383-384]Review: untitled [pp. 384-385]Review: untitled [pp. 385-386]Review: untitled [pp. 386-388]Review: untitled [pp. 388-390]Review: untitled [pp. 390-391]Review: untitled [pp. 391-392]Review: untitled [pp. 392-393]Review: untitled [pp. 393-394]Review: untitled [pp. 394-395]Review: untitled [pp. 396-397]Review: untitled [pp. 397-398]Review: untitled [pp. 398-399]Review: untitled [pp. 399-400]

BRIEFLY NOTED [pp. 401-406]Back Matter