'This marvellous book, a model of the sort of regional studies that are still so badly needed in the study of the Russian revolution and Civil War. The range and depth of scholarship deployed is extraordinary in its detail, and yet the end product is written fluidly and lucidly.… Given the wealth of material assembled here, it is difficult to argue with Retish's conclusion that 'Viatka's peasants did not shy away from the changes around them [but] sought out the state and actively worked to be part of the revolution and nation' (p. 265). Revolutionary Russia