From an award-winning historian, this is a break-out book in the tradition of "Agent Zig Zag". In the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, the Western powers were anxious to prevent the spread of Bolshevism across Europe. Lenin and Trotsky were equally anxious that the Communist vision they were busy introducing in Russia should do just that. But neither side knew anything about the other. The revolution and Russia's withdrawal from the First World War had ensured a diplomatic exodus from Moscow and the usual routes to vital information had been closed off. Into this void stepped an extraordinary collection of opportunists, journalists and spies - sometimes indeed journalists who were spies and vice versa: in Moscow Britain's Arthur Ransome, the American John Reed and Sidney Reilly - 'Ace of Spies' - all traded information and brokered deals between Russia and the West; in Berlin, Paris and London, the likes of Maxim Litvinov, Adolf Ioffe and Kamenev tried to infiltrate the political elite and influence foreign policy to the Bolsheviks' advantage. Robert Service, acclaimed historian and one of our finest commentators on matters Soviet, turns his meticulous eye to this ragtag group of people and, with narrative flair and impeccable research, reveals one of the great untold stories of the twentieth century.
Spies and Commissars: Bolshevik Russia and the West
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Review
"Library Journal
""[A] well-researched, detailed, and thoughtful analysis of the Russian Revolution, here removed from the global vacuum into which it is often relegated.... Service is careful not to lose focus on the cultural, political, and economic weight that the revolution brought to a dispirited Russia.... [A] nuanced and important contribution to the history of the Russian Revolution. Readers of Russian and early Soviet history, both in and out of academia, will find it illuminating."
"Kirkus Reviews"
"Careful, dense scholarly study" that "paints detailed portraits of the revolutionary principals and their sometimes-surprising allies and enemies."
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Robert Service is a Fellow of the British Academy and of St Antony's College, Oxford. He has written several books, including the highly acclaimed Lenin: A Biography, Russia: Experiment with a People, Stalin: A Biography and Comrades: A History of World Communism, as well as many other books on Russia's past and present. His most recent book, Trotsky: A Biography was awarded the 2009 Duff Cooper Prize. Married with four children, he lives in London.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A COMPREHENSIVE REAPPRAISAL OF THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION AND ITS AFTERMATH, 1917-22
July 27 2012
By MONTGOMERY
TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
The Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917 was one of the most tumultuous events of the 20th century. Preceding it was the February 1917 Revolution, which began with a series of strikes in Petrograd (the Russian wartime capital) and ended with the downfall of the Romanov dynasty and the establishment of a provisional government under Alexander Kerensky, a center-left politician pledged to keep Russia in the First World War.
This book offers a thorough and comprehensive telling of the events underlying both of these revolutions, and their immediate aftermath. The more I read the more I felt myself a part of an big, explosive drama of Shakespearian proportions studded with a variety of colorful and infamous characters. Lenin and Leon Trotsky emerge as the key figures from the Bolshevik faction of centre- and far-left parties who vied for control of the Russian government between the late spring and autumn of 1917.
Before reading this book, I like to think that I had a fairly broad understanding of the events that shaped Russia (and by extension, Eastern and Central Europe) between 1917 and 1922. But once I took the plunge into "SPIES AND COMMISSARS", I found that I had to tread a lot of heavy water. There was so, so much information to ingest and analyze. (Much of this information has only become available after the breakup of the Soviet Union in December 1991.) My opinion of Lenin, however, remains unchanged. He was a cunning, shameless opportunist who had no compunction about using violent means to consolidate and expand the Bolsheviks' control of Russia and, through the Comintern, spreading the gospel of Bolshevism throughout Europe. The wonder of it all was that the Bolsheviks managed to hold out, despite civil war, famine, massive social dislocation, and threats (of varying degrees) from the Germans (until their defeat in November 1918) and Allies to unseat them from power.
The best way to sum up the theme of this book is through the following remarks found in Chapter 32 ("The Unextinguished Fire") ---
"The Bolsheviks had kept their hardness and had kept their faith. Even pseudonyms they chose for themselves signified unyielding intent. Stalin was a name taken from the Russian word for steel, Molotov was a derivation of hammer. Their generation had been born and brought up in years when armed force was used the world over to expand empires and transform economies. Bolsheviks absorbed this toughness of spirit into their own doctrines and practices. They saw how industrialists, financiers and landowners had become masters of the earth. They learned from the ruthlessness and optimism they witnessed. Like the capitalists they detested, they took chances. The October Revolution had always been a gamble. But it had been successful for them, even though the price was paid by millions of Russians in death, tears and famine. Communists proved themselves flexible. Although they hated compromise, they became adept at scraping off the minimum of skin from their ideology. Bolshevism was founded on the idea that humankind is infinitely plastic, infinitely malleable. The rulers of Soviet Russia aimed to reconstruct the entire edifice of life for the benefit of the working class --- and if workers did not yet understand where their best interests lay, the communist party would simply carry out the Revolution on their behalf."
This book offers a thorough and comprehensive telling of the events underlying both of these revolutions, and their immediate aftermath. The more I read the more I felt myself a part of an big, explosive drama of Shakespearian proportions studded with a variety of colorful and infamous characters. Lenin and Leon Trotsky emerge as the key figures from the Bolshevik faction of centre- and far-left parties who vied for control of the Russian government between the late spring and autumn of 1917.
Before reading this book, I like to think that I had a fairly broad understanding of the events that shaped Russia (and by extension, Eastern and Central Europe) between 1917 and 1922. But once I took the plunge into "SPIES AND COMMISSARS", I found that I had to tread a lot of heavy water. There was so, so much information to ingest and analyze. (Much of this information has only become available after the breakup of the Soviet Union in December 1991.) My opinion of Lenin, however, remains unchanged. He was a cunning, shameless opportunist who had no compunction about using violent means to consolidate and expand the Bolsheviks' control of Russia and, through the Comintern, spreading the gospel of Bolshevism throughout Europe. The wonder of it all was that the Bolsheviks managed to hold out, despite civil war, famine, massive social dislocation, and threats (of varying degrees) from the Germans (until their defeat in November 1918) and Allies to unseat them from power.
The best way to sum up the theme of this book is through the following remarks found in Chapter 32 ("The Unextinguished Fire") ---
"The Bolsheviks had kept their hardness and had kept their faith. Even pseudonyms they chose for themselves signified unyielding intent. Stalin was a name taken from the Russian word for steel, Molotov was a derivation of hammer. Their generation had been born and brought up in years when armed force was used the world over to expand empires and transform economies. Bolsheviks absorbed this toughness of spirit into their own doctrines and practices. They saw how industrialists, financiers and landowners had become masters of the earth. They learned from the ruthlessness and optimism they witnessed. Like the capitalists they detested, they took chances. The October Revolution had always been a gamble. But it had been successful for them, even though the price was paid by millions of Russians in death, tears and famine. Communists proved themselves flexible. Although they hated compromise, they became adept at scraping off the minimum of skin from their ideology. Bolshevism was founded on the idea that humankind is infinitely plastic, infinitely malleable. The rulers of Soviet Russia aimed to reconstruct the entire edifice of life for the benefit of the working class --- and if workers did not yet understand where their best interests lay, the communist party would simply carry out the Revolution on their behalf."
By J. C. Mareschal
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
When the Bolsheviks took power in Russia, they were unprepared to conduct a foreign policy, and certainly not in the traditional way. They came to power because the Russian people, exhausted by the war, saw them as the only party determined to put an end to the fighting. The Bolsheviks, who did not expect to arrive to power in a pre-industrial country without a working class, were anticipating that communist revolutions would follow in Germany and other industrial countries. But in the meantime, they had to assume the responsibilities of the Russian state. This book presents a well-documented history of the first steps of the Soviet Union into foreign policy.
The Soviets did not want to keep at war with Germany, but England and France put enormous pressure to try and keep them in the war, perhaps expecting that the German would finish them before the Western allies finish Germany. Trotsky tried unsuccessfully to bid for time at the Brest-Litovsk conference; then Lenin and the Soviet leadership were forced to sign a very unfavorable peace treaty with the central powers. Their "betrayal" was instantly punished by France and England who put all their support behind various White armies who fought against the Reds in a bloody civil war. After the German surrender, many in France and England wanted to send troops to fight the Reds. But both countries were longing for peace, and Lloyd George and Clemenceau knew better than commit political suicide. But for the next few years, western countries would do their best to undermine the Soviet power, and the Soviets would use all their expertise to try and trigger revolutions in Germany and other western countries. This was the time of Western spies against Soviet commissars. At the end of the Russian civil war, the Soviet leadership had come to realize that the revolution was not going to happen anytime soon in Western Europe, and the western countries understood that the Soviets were there to stay. But it would never be normal diplomacy between the West and the Soviet Union.
Robert Service has written a fascinating story, involving many intriguing characters among both the Spies and the Commissars, which he depicts with great care. There were also many fumbling idiots, mostly among the diplomats completely unprepared and incapable to face a new situation. The author has no patience with the fellow travelers; in Lenin's words, they were the useful idiots; for Robert Service, they were anything but useful. Despite many small biases, "Spies and Commissars" does much to explain the future Soviet diplomacy, why the Soviets never trusted England and France before WWII, and why they did not trust the western allies during the war. A very interesting story, indeed!
The Soviets did not want to keep at war with Germany, but England and France put enormous pressure to try and keep them in the war, perhaps expecting that the German would finish them before the Western allies finish Germany. Trotsky tried unsuccessfully to bid for time at the Brest-Litovsk conference; then Lenin and the Soviet leadership were forced to sign a very unfavorable peace treaty with the central powers. Their "betrayal" was instantly punished by France and England who put all their support behind various White armies who fought against the Reds in a bloody civil war. After the German surrender, many in France and England wanted to send troops to fight the Reds. But both countries were longing for peace, and Lloyd George and Clemenceau knew better than commit political suicide. But for the next few years, western countries would do their best to undermine the Soviet power, and the Soviets would use all their expertise to try and trigger revolutions in Germany and other western countries. This was the time of Western spies against Soviet commissars. At the end of the Russian civil war, the Soviet leadership had come to realize that the revolution was not going to happen anytime soon in Western Europe, and the western countries understood that the Soviets were there to stay. But it would never be normal diplomacy between the West and the Soviet Union.
Robert Service has written a fascinating story, involving many intriguing characters among both the Spies and the Commissars, which he depicts with great care. There were also many fumbling idiots, mostly among the diplomats completely unprepared and incapable to face a new situation. The author has no patience with the fellow travelers; in Lenin's words, they were the useful idiots; for Robert Service, they were anything but useful. Despite many small biases, "Spies and Commissars" does much to explain the future Soviet diplomacy, why the Soviets never trusted England and France before WWII, and why they did not trust the western allies during the war. A very interesting story, indeed!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.2 out of 5 stars
9 reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping and Masterly !
Jun 1 2012
By Paul Gelman
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
In his short introduction to the book, Professor Robert Service writes that the "October Revolution gave rise to questions which remain important today, questions that find expression in their polarities of democracy and dictatorship, justice and terror, social fairness and class struggle, ideological absolutism and cultural pluralism, national sovereignty and armed international intervention".
Thus the reason to write this book, which examines not only the Russian Revolution, but also describes in great detail the efforts invested by the West to fight the Bolsheviks.To be more precise, Mr. Service came upoan the idea of writing his book after he had seen the papers of the British intelligence agent Paul Dukes, who was just one of many who tried to influence the outcome of the 1917-1918 events. In addition, John Reed and Arthur Ransome as well as two more famous foreigners and spies-Sidney Reilly and Robert Bruce-Lockhart-also make their vast appearances here. Among the primary materials used, Mr. Service checked for the first time documents found at Hoover Institution archives where he obtained permission to access the papers of Lockhart, papers from various individuals in Brtish and Russian archives and other contemporary periodicals.
The book is divided into four parts, and each one progresses chronologically. In each of them there he writes about the unfolding of the Revolution and about those who were for and those who were working against it.
The West, meaning in greater part Britain, thought that the Whites offered the chance of infiltrating and influencing Russia by intrigue. Therefore adventurers and spies, reportes and undercover agents found a ferile ground to play their game. As mentioned before, Lockhart, who was Churchill's representative in Moscow, was one of them. He and his mistress Moura Budberg(who, we are informed, was "bored by her husband"),George Hill who was another British agent and Reilly were among the most famous ones who invested their efforts to subvert the Revolution. Reilly, whose real name was Sigmund Rosenblum, was born in Odessa and was of Jewish origins. He is known as the "Ace of Spies". He was a great womanizer and was one of a long list of agents or spies who met in the Savoy Hotel in 1919 in order to discuss the most efficient ways to liquidate the "Bolo Revolution". At those lunches, which were financed by the British Foreign Office, one could also find Paul Dukes, Lockhart, Rex Leeper and John Baggge.The mission was to topple Lenin and his fellows.
It is from this point onwards where Mr. Service describes the plans and intrigues used by those individuals, showing their private lives and the various techniques they used against the Bolsheviks. The most famous plan was the one used by Lockhart, who wanted to kidnap Lenin and Trotsky. According to a secret report written by the Cheka, both Russians were to be shot after capture. The plan was foiled and during the trial in Moscow, it was revealed that dozens of other Americans and British citizens were conspiring against the Reds. Lockhart escaped to London. He and his friend Reilly as
well as others were declared "enemies of the working people" and sentenced to death if ever they were found on Soviet territory.
The main gain of the West from all these and other well-documented plots was that they got a very good picure of what was going on in Russia. To quote:"...communism was never obscured from the view of the leaders who took the big decisions.It is true that the information was often patchy and even contradictory, but it was good enough for judgements to be made". In addtion, the chances of toppling the Reds were slim, the military expeditions to Russian were constantly too small and the Whites were no match for the Reds. The main fear of the West was a communist Germany and the spread of communism elsewhere in Europe. This definitely happened after 1945.
This excellent book is a description of extremely complicated entanglements of personalities and institutions, of politicians, spies, reporters, lovers and assassins (Fanny Kaplan among them) and is a vast micro-history which adds another dimension to the most famous revolution of the twentieth century. Highly recommended!
Thus the reason to write this book, which examines not only the Russian Revolution, but also describes in great detail the efforts invested by the West to fight the Bolsheviks.To be more precise, Mr. Service came upoan the idea of writing his book after he had seen the papers of the British intelligence agent Paul Dukes, who was just one of many who tried to influence the outcome of the 1917-1918 events. In addition, John Reed and Arthur Ransome as well as two more famous foreigners and spies-Sidney Reilly and Robert Bruce-Lockhart-also make their vast appearances here. Among the primary materials used, Mr. Service checked for the first time documents found at Hoover Institution archives where he obtained permission to access the papers of Lockhart, papers from various individuals in Brtish and Russian archives and other contemporary periodicals.
The book is divided into four parts, and each one progresses chronologically. In each of them there he writes about the unfolding of the Revolution and about those who were for and those who were working against it.
The West, meaning in greater part Britain, thought that the Whites offered the chance of infiltrating and influencing Russia by intrigue. Therefore adventurers and spies, reportes and undercover agents found a ferile ground to play their game. As mentioned before, Lockhart, who was Churchill's representative in Moscow, was one of them. He and his mistress Moura Budberg(who, we are informed, was "bored by her husband"),George Hill who was another British agent and Reilly were among the most famous ones who invested their efforts to subvert the Revolution. Reilly, whose real name was Sigmund Rosenblum, was born in Odessa and was of Jewish origins. He is known as the "Ace of Spies". He was a great womanizer and was one of a long list of agents or spies who met in the Savoy Hotel in 1919 in order to discuss the most efficient ways to liquidate the "Bolo Revolution". At those lunches, which were financed by the British Foreign Office, one could also find Paul Dukes, Lockhart, Rex Leeper and John Baggge.The mission was to topple Lenin and his fellows.
It is from this point onwards where Mr. Service describes the plans and intrigues used by those individuals, showing their private lives and the various techniques they used against the Bolsheviks. The most famous plan was the one used by Lockhart, who wanted to kidnap Lenin and Trotsky. According to a secret report written by the Cheka, both Russians were to be shot after capture. The plan was foiled and during the trial in Moscow, it was revealed that dozens of other Americans and British citizens were conspiring against the Reds. Lockhart escaped to London. He and his friend Reilly as
well as others were declared "enemies of the working people" and sentenced to death if ever they were found on Soviet territory.
The main gain of the West from all these and other well-documented plots was that they got a very good picure of what was going on in Russia. To quote:"...communism was never obscured from the view of the leaders who took the big decisions.It is true that the information was often patchy and even contradictory, but it was good enough for judgements to be made". In addtion, the chances of toppling the Reds were slim, the military expeditions to Russian were constantly too small and the Whites were no match for the Reds. The main fear of the West was a communist Germany and the spread of communism elsewhere in Europe. This definitely happened after 1945.
This excellent book is a description of extremely complicated entanglements of personalities and institutions, of politicians, spies, reporters, lovers and assassins (Fanny Kaplan among them) and is a vast micro-history which adds another dimension to the most famous revolution of the twentieth century. Highly recommended!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Pride of England
Jan 22 2013
By Bernard Chapin
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Robert Service, along with Anthony Beevor, are my two favorite living historians. At this point, after the excellence of his Stalin, Trotsky, and Lenin biographies I will read anything he writes. Therefore, I was excited about this book and ordered it immediately. Here, he's taking a special angle on his subject and not simply constructing a linear narrative. Much of the craziness that went on in Russia during the March and October revolutions of 1917 is his focus as is the ensuing civil war. The allies--England, the US, and France--had a large hand in the goings on in the USSR and even occupied portions of its landmass during the period after the Tsar's ouster. We had various spies trying to relay information back to the Entente, but we were also testing to determine what methods for counter-revolution were available to us (not many!). Within this concise work are numerous personalities that most of us have never heard of before--including an Englishman who may have partially served as the inspiration for James Bond. Students of the Soviet Union will appreciate this book as it offers up extensive detail regarding an era rarely discussed in 2013. It also will appeal to laymen who love a thrilling tale by a master historian.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
the czar has eight million men with guns and bayonets
Dec 28 2012
By Charles S. Fisher
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Borrowing words from Simon & Garfunkel: I'd rather be a Red than a White. Yes I would. If I could, I surely would. But I can no longer. We revisit history so many times: now it is a repeat of the evils of Lenin and Trotsky. In the 1960's the evils of the West were forefront because of the Vietnam War. Who could believe the military-industrial-academic acolytes of poor Kerenski daily walking to his office at the Hoover Institute at Stanford. They were flunkies for American hegemony. The pendulum has swung and the horrors of communism now rule, though we knew about, but discounted, them then. The Whites certainly didn't like the Jews or anyone that stood in their path but I am not sure they were as systematic as Dzerzhinski and the Cheka. The Tsar was no ninny when it came to repression. And the book hints that the cadres could be fiercer than even Trotsky, resisting Lenin's New Economic Policy, wanting to give no leash to the peasants.
This book is a mixed bag. Much of the necessary background information has been repeated many times. The theme of the book, what each side knew about the other, gets swamped by the sheer of amount of well known history which is the container for the book's novelty. I often wondered where the detailed information was about the minions of telegraphers and code breakers, the unknown common agents, who fed information to spy services who then offered it up to decision makers. On either side the power brokers never really listened unless the information supported their prejudices. So what good were the leakers. Sounds a lot like the present: vide Iraq. Yet the author does give us lots of goodies about the famous who worked for or doubled crossed each side. Sydney Reilly intrigues me because of "Ace of Spies" but there are others. Robert Bruce Lockhart is a good one. Lloyd George comes off pretty hip, but Wilson, Churchill, Clemenceau etc were as myopic as Lenin et al were liars and blinded by their ideology. With all the information about the celebrities we get little sense of why the Red's won the civil war. No matter what material support the Japanese, English, etc. gave the counterrevolutionaries the author assures us they could not win. I don't remember whether he mentions it but elsewhere it is claimed that the Whites so completely alienated the peasantry that they lost support whereas the Commies had not oppressed them or the Jews yet so they supported the revolution.
Maybe Lloyd George did save the revolution by opening commercial ties just when the Bolshevik's consolidation of power was unraveling because of economic collapse and oppression. So the years of Soviet evil are the fault of greedy capitalists. Quite an irony, reminiscent of Nixon and Mao.
This is a readable book and interesting enough even to a person like me who has exhausted the topic over the years. I would recommend it, even for someone who just wants to learn about the end of WWI, the 1917 Revolution, and its aftermath. The person it sends me to want to know more about is Libby Litvinov. So that is next.
Charlie Fisher, author of "Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World", on Amazon.
This book is a mixed bag. Much of the necessary background information has been repeated many times. The theme of the book, what each side knew about the other, gets swamped by the sheer of amount of well known history which is the container for the book's novelty. I often wondered where the detailed information was about the minions of telegraphers and code breakers, the unknown common agents, who fed information to spy services who then offered it up to decision makers. On either side the power brokers never really listened unless the information supported their prejudices. So what good were the leakers. Sounds a lot like the present: vide Iraq. Yet the author does give us lots of goodies about the famous who worked for or doubled crossed each side. Sydney Reilly intrigues me because of "Ace of Spies" but there are others. Robert Bruce Lockhart is a good one. Lloyd George comes off pretty hip, but Wilson, Churchill, Clemenceau etc were as myopic as Lenin et al were liars and blinded by their ideology. With all the information about the celebrities we get little sense of why the Red's won the civil war. No matter what material support the Japanese, English, etc. gave the counterrevolutionaries the author assures us they could not win. I don't remember whether he mentions it but elsewhere it is claimed that the Whites so completely alienated the peasantry that they lost support whereas the Commies had not oppressed them or the Jews yet so they supported the revolution.
Maybe Lloyd George did save the revolution by opening commercial ties just when the Bolshevik's consolidation of power was unraveling because of economic collapse and oppression. So the years of Soviet evil are the fault of greedy capitalists. Quite an irony, reminiscent of Nixon and Mao.
This is a readable book and interesting enough even to a person like me who has exhausted the topic over the years. I would recommend it, even for someone who just wants to learn about the end of WWI, the 1917 Revolution, and its aftermath. The person it sends me to want to know more about is Libby Litvinov. So that is next.
Charlie Fisher, author of "Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World", on Amazon.
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