“The History Will Weigh, Evaluate, and Judge”: To Publication of the Collective Monograph “Minin: A Portrait against the Background of the Era”

Review

УДК 049.32+929+94(470)

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2021-4-1257-1264

Vorobiev, Evgenii P.

Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation, Moscow, Russian Federation

“The History Will Weigh, Evaluate, and Judge”: To Publication of the Collective Monograph “Minin: A Portrait against the Background of the Era”

Abstract

This review of the monograph "Minin: A Portrait on the Background of the Era” assesses the results of studying biography and political activities of the prominent representative of the Bolshevik party, who greatly contributed to the establishment and consolidation of the Soviet power in Southern Russia. The authors of the book have discovered and generalized considerable factual material concerning Sergey Konstantinovich Minin’s formation as a revolutionary and introduced into scientific use a set of documents indicating his place in organizing the defense of Tsaritsyn against the White armies during the Civil War. The review underscores relevance and informational value of work accomplished by the Volgograd historians. The monograph contains materials highlighting the role of local leaders in the Bolsheviks’ confident victory in the elections to the Tsaritsyn City Duma in the summer of 1917; S.K. Minin’s relations with V.I. Lenin and I.V. Stalin; correlation of changes in the party hierarchy with struggles for power in Soviet Russia during the Civil War and in the 1920s. The review notes great value of unique photographs and documents, which have been revealed in the fonds of central and local archives and are being published for the first time. The analysis of letters, leaflets, articles, and telegrams provides an opportunity to trace the evolution of S.K. Minin’s views on the situation in Russia in the era of Soviet formation; his outstanding talent as publicist and propagandist is evident. The reference and bibliographic apparatus of the publication deserves praise. It identifies published and unpublished sources, as well as achievements and gaps in the historiography on the topic. The review contends the importance of the book for revision of conventional assessments of the Soviet historiography concerning the Bolsheviks’ essential role in the overthrow of czarism in Russia, dual power in the center and regions in the spring and summer of 1917, V.I. Lenin’s party coming to power following the Great October Socialist Revolution, “triumphal march of the Soviet power,” brilliant or (after the exposure of the cult of personality in 1956) destabilizing role of J.V. Stalin in the defense of Tsaritsyn. The author of the review contends great subjectivity of the memoirs about S.K. Minin written by his relatives, which are being introduced into scientific use, and continuing underestimation of his role in the revolutionary struggles and the Civil War in Russia. The prospects for further research lie in scientific search and analysis of documents found in the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the Central State Archives of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg.

Keywords

Historical sources, the revolution of 1917, Russian Civil War, V. I. Lenin, J. V. Stalin, S. K. Minin, Soviet historiography, Bolsheviks, Tsaritsyn.

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References

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KORJSALAKIS, Yiannis. Bolshevik Bargaining in Soviet Industry: Communists between State and Society in the Interwar Soviet Union. IN: Journal of Modern History, 2021, Vol. 93, no 2, pp. 324–362.

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About the authors

Vorob'ev Evgenii Petrovoch, PhD in History, associate professor, Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation, department of humanities and socio-political sciences, assistant professor, Moscow, Russian Federation, +7-999-973-12-88, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 17.05.2021, published (for citation):

VOROBIEV, E. P. “Potom istoriya vzvesit, otsenit, rassudit”. K izdaniyu kollektivnoi monografii “Minin: portret na fone epokhi” [“The History Will Weigh, Evaluate, and Judge”: To Publication of the Collective Monograph “Minin: A Portrait against the Background of the Era”. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2021, no. 4, pp. 1257-1264. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2021-4-1257-1264