Revolution and Counterrevolution

Bol Partner

Why did the most unruly proletariat of the Twentieth Century come to tolerate the ascendancy of a political and economic system that, by every conceivable measure, proved antagonistic to working-class interests? Revolution and Counterrevolution is at the center of the ongoing discussion about class identities, the Russian Revolution, and early Soviet industrial relations. Based on exhaustive research in four factory-specific archives, it is unquestionably the most thorough investigation to date on working-class life during the revolutionary era. Focusing on class conflict and workers' frequently changing response to management and state labor policies, the study also meticulously reconstructs everyday life: from leisure activities to domestic issues, the changing role of women, and popular religious belief. Its unparalleled immersion in an exceptional variety of sources at the factory level and its direct engagement with the major interpretive questions about the formation of the Stalinist system will force scholars to re-evaluate long-held assumptions about early Soviet society.

Bol

An exciting contribution to the discussion about class and the Russian Revolution. Based on exhaustive research in four factory-specific archives, Murphy's Revolution and Counterrevolution is unquestionably the most thorough investigation to date on working-class life in Moscow during the revolutionary era. It is an exciting contribution to the discussion about class and the Russian revolution from Murphy, who is a history lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and specialist in the Russian Revolution and Soviet society.