Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime

Pipes describes the Civil War, the attempts to export the revolution abroad, and the solidification of the Communist state in the early 1920s. He argues that the Russian Revolution was an intellectual, rather than a class uprising; that it was steeped in terror from its very outset; and that it was not a revolution at all, but a coup d'etat. He goes on to examine the establishment in Soviet Russia between 1917 and 1920 of a new type of regime: the world's first modern, industrial, totalitarian state.

"Closing out his masterpiece trilogy on the Russian revolution... Pipes in this volume examines the character of the totalitarian state Lenin created.... With other matters, and with patient, cumulatively devastating persuasion, Pipes conclusively proves Lenin's personal responsibility (an angels-on-pinheads distinction that has pitted apologists against critics of Bolshevism) for all that followed.... Well-written, and starkly laconic where need be (in descriptions of executions and the like), this challenging work culminates a great scholar's lifetime of study. No library should be without it."
--Booklist

"This book--with the light it casts not only on the major events of the period but also on neglected subjects like culture and religion (the Central Archive shows that Lenin asked for daily reports concerning the number of priests shot)--will give rise to controversy, but it is a monumental achievement, unlikely to be surpassed for many years to come."
--Kirkus Review