A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to Its Legacy

In the course of the twentieth century the Russians time and again found themselves in situations for which there was no precedent. After the astounding Bolshevik victory in 1917, the revolutionary leaders were as surprised by their success as everyone else. Their ideology had not prepared them for the problems they had to face, and the building of the Soviet state turned out to be a vast improvisation. In 1992, on the ruins of communism, the Russians were attempting to build a political system suitable for a European state at the very end of the twentieth century and to create a market economy. To be sure, there were other countries in Eastern Europe that also had to struggle with the heritage of communism, but none had problems as serious as the Russians. The size of the country, the heterogeneity of the population, and the relative lack of democratic traditions and civil society exacerbated the problems facing Russia.

The situation in which the country found itself was oddly similar to that in 1917. Once again the stasis of a conservative old regime was challenged by a period of liberalization, leading to descent into anarchy. The period of anarchy was brought to a conclusion not by a genuine revolution of determined rebels supported by a majority of the people, but by the disintegration of the old regime. In 1917, the country had also experienced vast and traumatic social, political, and economic transformations. Tsarism, like the communist regime, was not brought down by its enemies but rather collapsed on its own; the principles on which it had been based suddenly appeared hopelessly anachronistic. The February Revolution was followed by a brief illusion of national unity. Very soon afterward, however, it turned out that, in fact, people had different and contradictory expectations. It was impossible to rule the country on the basis of democratic and liberal principles because consensus on fundamental issues was missing. In 1917, just as in 1991–92, the collapse of the center unleashed an extraordinary flourishing of nationalisms. The center could neither suppress nor satisfy the newfound nationalisms of the many minorities.