Russia's Peasants in Revolution and Civil War

Aaron B. Retish is Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Wayne State University.

• Introduction; 1. The masses mobilized: militarization, conscription, and war in the village; 2. Peasant citizens: freedom and revolution in the village; 3. Peasant and nation in revolution; 4. Bringing the state back in: land disputes and Soviet power in the village; 5. Civil war and the village; 6. The resurrection of Soviet power in the countryside; 7. Big tent Bolshevism: rule by consent and the construction of the Soviet polity; 8. The citizens' hunger: famine relief efforts and the civil war economy; Conclusion.

'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