Melgunov, Sergei Petrovich

Martovskie dni 1917 goda [March Days of 1917]

Paris: Les Éditeurs Réunis, 1961. Item #1406

456 pages. 24 cm. In the original publisher’s wrappers. A very good copy with moderately toned wrappers and light corner wear.

Issued posthumously in its first complete edition and set in pre-revolutionary orthography, this important historical chronicle by Sergei Petrovich Melgunov (1879–1956) offers a meticulous reconstruction of the critical events of March 1917—the so-called February Revolution. Drawing on a wealth of firsthand accounts and archival sources, Melgunov presents a near-hourly narrative of the collapse of the autocracy, focusing particularly on the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the emergence of the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, and the early actions of the Petrograd Soviet. The book also examines the fateful issuance of Order No. 1, which undermined military command structure and hastened the disintegration of the Imperial Army. Melgunov’s goal is historical clarity: stripping away the layers of myth constructed by democratic publicists and later canonized in Soviet historiography, he restores complexity and contingency to the revolutionary moment.

Price: $300.00