Bread and Justice State and Society in Petrograd 1917-1922

This is a study of Petrograd in the period immediately following the Russian Revolution. Formerly the imperial capital St. Petersburg, in the years after 1917 Petrograd became a revolutionary citadel. Mary McAuley's political and social history throws into relief the interplay of factors that contributed to the formation of the new Soviet state. Her detailed account of life in the city provides new insights into the progress of the Russian Revolution and the establishment, in 1921, of the Leninist political order. Bread and Justice is based on a wide array of original sources, including newspapers, pamphlets, posters, memoirs, and personal interviews. It paints a multi-dimensional picture of everyday life in post-Revolutionary Petrograd, exploring themes such as violence and unemployment, civic justice and bread rations, political ideas and cultural dreams. This is a book about the people of the city - Bolshevik commissars, imperial princesses, hungry schoolchildren, and theatre artists all make their appearance - and about the impact of the Russian Revolution on their lives. It is a major contribution to our understanding of the revolutionary process and the formation of the Soviet Union.

List of plates; List of maps; List of tables; List of abbreviations; Glossary; Introduction: Part I. The City and Revolution: The end of the Imperial city; Revolution and political responses; An overview: key developments, 1917-1922; Pat II. Gaining Power: Weapons and Authority, October 1917 - August 1918; Coercion and crime; Privileged Petrograd and electoral politics; Factory and soviet elections; Part III. Constructing a Workers' Government: Down in the districts, 1917-1920; City soviet and commissariats, 1917-1920; Defining a role for the party, 1917-1919; Part IV. The State Takes Over: Industry, October 1917 - Spring 1919; The search for a socialist factory; Management and unions; Protest from the shop-floor; Part V. The State Takes Over: Goods and Services, October 1917-Spring 1921; Health and housing; Bread without the bourgeoisie; Teachers and children; Part IV. Class Enemies, Bourgeois Specialists, and Political Opponents: Culture and class; Academe and the artists, October 1917-1921; The Cheka, September 1918-1921; Part VII. A Tangled Skein: Crisis in the spring of 1921; The party takes over, 1921-1922; Conclusion; Appendix 1. Leading Petrograd Bolsheviks, 1917-1922; Appendix 2. The Petrograd Committee RKP(b) October 1917 - September 1921; Bibliography; Index