The Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921: An Annotated Bibliography by Jonathan Smele (review)

REVIEWS 769 Smele, Jonathan (ed.). TheRussianRevolution and Civil War,I9I7-I92i: An AnnotatedBibliography. Continuum, London and New York, 2003. xxviii + 625 pp. Indexes. Cioo.oo. JONATHAN SMELE has produced a bibliography that will be the standard reference work for the next quarter century. It is a work of unparalleled erudition. The product of some ten years of research,it runsto 5,896 entries, and includes not only monographs but memoirs and journal articles, often from suchunlikelyvolumes as theMennonite Quarterly Review orAerospace History. Unlike many bibliographies, Smele provides annotations to most of the entries. He has held in his hands over go per cent of the titles listed, and his briefcomments are alwaysinformativeabout the content of what he has read and sometimes acerbic about its quality. In the introduction Smele describes his approach to compiling the bibliography as 'serendipitous' (p. xxv), but there is nothing chance or random about the finalresult.Aftera briefattempt to catch Smele out and discoveran omissionfroman areaI knewwell, I found myself turningto other sections and noting down items I had missed over the years; an article on the Hungarian revolution of i9I9 from the Journalof Central andEastEuropean Affairsof I951 seemed a particulargap in my own bibliographyon the Comintern. The inclusion of workswrittenin other West European languages is of particularuse. Most of those scholars studying the period know Francisco Benvenuti's TheBolsheviks andtheRedArny, I9I8-20 (Cambridge, I988), but I confess I had missed his studyof Trotskii'sviews on the tradeunion controversyof late I 920 in F. Gori (ed.),Pensiero eazionepolitica diLevTrockj (Florence, I982). So, are there criticisms that can be made of this comprehensive bibliography ? Categorizing 5,896 entries is a formidable task and works do not alwaysappearwhere readersmight expect them. The bibliographyis divided into twenty-five chapters, each with its own theme and furthersubdivisions. These areallset out clearlyin a fifteen-pageArrangementof the Bibliography. Nevertheless,occasionallyresearchersmightfindthemselvesstrugglinga little to trace everythingthat is included on theirfavouredtopic. Kerenskiiis a case in point. In chapter four: General and Miscellaneous Memoirs and Other First-hand Accounts under the subdivision 'Officials of the Provisional Government' are included Kerenskii's TheCatastrophe (New York, 1927), The Crucifixion ofLiberty (New York, I934) and RussiaandHistogy's Turning Point.The Kerensky Memoirs (New York, I965). The notes on page 30 comment on the limitations of these texts and the critiqueswritten by such varied authors as Alfred Knox andJohn Keep, but if readerswant to find studiesof Kerenskii, ratherthan Kerenskii'sown writings,they must returnto the Arrangementof the Bibliographyand move forwardto chaptertwenty:Other PoliticalParties in the subdivision'MiscellaneousPoliticalPersonalities'and then turnto page 399 to find such books as the well-known biography by Richard Abraham. This is a little cumbersome and it is always worth readers checking with the index to ensureevery entryto a particularindividualhas been traced. There is a certain ruthlesslogic to the categorizationsystemused by Smele that can separateworkswhich might seem similar.Thus N. Pereira's'White 770 SEER, 82, 3, 2004 Power during the Civil War in Siberia (I9I8-1920): Dilemmas of Kolchak's "WarAnti-Communism"' (Canadian Slavonic Papers,29, I987, i) is placed in chapterseventeen:theWhiteMovement, theDemocratic Counter-Revolution and the Emigration because the key word is 'White'; the same author's 'SiberianAtamanshchina: Warlordismand the Russian Civil War' in V. Brovkin 'scollection TheBolsheviks inRussian Society: theRevolution andCivilWars (New Haven, CT, 1997) appears in chapter twenty-three:the National Minorities and Regional Affairs under the subdivision 'Siberia', although it could be argued that both studies addressrelatedissues of the civil war'seasternfront. Once again, a check with the index is essential. Sometimes, however, the index, which only covers authors, cannot help. The Arrangement of the Bibliography lists the 'Kronstadt Uprising' as a subdivision of chapter eighteen: Popular Hostility to Soviet Rule. This is where such studies as P. Avrich's Kronstadt I92I (Princeton, NJ, 1970) can be located. However, I. Getzler'sKronstadt I9I7-2I.: TheFateofa Soviet Democracy (Cambridge, I983), appears in chapter twenty-three: National Minorities and Regional Affairs under the subdivision'EuropeanRussianRegions', because it covers a longer timescale than the I92 I revolt. This is not a major criticism of Smele's work. Should the article by M. Volacich on the 'CurzonLine and TerritorialChanges in EasternEurope' in Belorussian Review,I956, be placed in chapter twenty-three under the subdivision...

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