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The Petrograd Workers in the Russian Revolution
February 1917-June 1918

The Petrograd Workers in the Russian Revolution is a study of the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and of the first months of Soviet power as viewed and experienced 'from below', by the industrial workers of Petrograd, Russia’s capital and the center of its revolutionary movement. Based largely on contemporary sources, it lets the workers speak for themselves, showing them as conscious, creative subjects of the revolutionary process, indeed, as the leading force of the revolution. In doing so, it sheds light on the nature and role of the Bolshevik party as an authentic workers’ organization that by the summer of 1917 had become the leading political force among workers.

Revised and expanded edition of two books published in English, namely: The Petrograd Workers and the Fall of the Old Regime (Macmillan, 1983) and The Petrograd Workers and the Soviet Seizure of Power (Macmillan, 1984).

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Reviews
  • “Given the importance of the workers of Petrograd in the Russian revolution [...] the value of Mandel’s work can hardly be overstated. Painstakingly researched, it illuminates the connections between debates among party leaders and the underlying tensions affecting workers’ lives. This leaves the reader with a much richer understanding of how the working class, in all its complexity, acts collectively to make history.” 
    —Ted McTaggart, Against the Current