Melgunov, Sergei Petrovich

Kak bolsheviki zakhvatili vlast: Oktiabrskii perevorot 1917 goda [How the Bolsheviks Seized Power: The October Coup of 1917]

Paris: La Renaissance, 1953. Item #1405

391 pages. 24 cm. In original printed wrappers. A very good copy with light overall wear, minor foxing to covers and slight creasing to lower edge.

This detailed study by the eminent liberal historian Sergei Melgunov (1879–1956) forms the second volume in his celebrated trilogy "Revoliutsiia i tsar." Whereas "Martovskie dni" focused on the abdication of Nicholas II, this companion volume offers a critical examination of the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917. Drawing upon a wide array of archival documents, memoirs, and press materials, Melgunov reconstructs the Bolsheviks’ calculated use of both armed force and political manipulation to overwhelm the Provisional Government and suppress opposition. He identifies the key players—both among the revolutionaries and their opponents—and meticulously charts the chronology of events leading up to the storming of the Winter Palace.

First published in the emigre press, the work remains one of the most significant anti-Bolshevik accounts of the October Revolution from within the Russian liberal tradition.

Price: $300.00