Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
Crime and Punishment in the Russian Revolution
I would hope readers pay close attention to Chapter 5, An Epidemics of Mob Justice, pp. 167-191, especially the graphic cases, 170–177. Also, I would like readers to pay attention to the explosion of the alcohol pogroms under the Bolshevik regime, pp. 214–217.
Mob justice and alcohol pogroms reveal that violence was lurking behind the thin veneer of society, like volcanic magma, ready to explode. That violence was not an organized violence to advance political goals of social groups, but what Pushkin called “spontaneous, merciless" elementary forces. None of the political elite, whether liberals, moderate socialists, and even the Bolsheviks had any solution to meet this violence. It also reminds us of the fragility of civilization that is often skin deep.
Russia in 1917 is far removed from contemporary America. But, as Mark Twain said, if history does not repeat itself, it does rhyme. Remote as it seems, there are certain rhymes I can hear between Russia in 1917 and contemporary America.
We now see American society becoming more and more polarized. We see the rule of law being challenged. We see the freedom press under attack and we have witnessed tacit approval of violence to achieve political goals. The norms and values that anchor American democracy are under assault.
Looking at Russia in 1917 we may be comforted by the belief that our democracy had the resilience to withstand these attacks. But we must be aware of the fragility of democracy that could be easily subverted from within. It is unlikely that contemporary America will slide into a catastrophic revolution, but what happened in Russia in 1917 will give us a chance to reflect upon the value of our democracy.
Editor: Judi Pajo
Crime and Punishment in the Russian Revolution
Tsuyoshi Hasegawa Crime and Punishment in the Russian Revolution: Mob Justice and Police in Petrograd Harvard University Press 368 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches ISBN 978 0674972063
Available here →November 27, 2017
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Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
Tsuyoshi Hasegawa is Research Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research on modern Russian and Soviet history and the Cold War covers two different areas: first, the Russian Revolution of 1917, and second, foreign relations involving Russia, Japan, and the United States, specifically, Russo-Japanese relations, the end of the Pacific War, and the Cold War in Asia.
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Ordinary crime control, not ideology, was one of the decisive steps to the Bolshevik totalitarian state.
Against DS · Dehumanization works because its victims are seen as human vermin, uncanny fusions of fellow human and subhuman creature. On: Ideology explains state and collective violence
Against RS · When you are born matters more than who you are, and history is baked into criminal records. On: Rates of violence are set by material conditions such as poverty and unemployment
Against AS · Russian revolutionary terrorism grew from deep Christian soil, and Zasulich's dream of martyrdom came from reading the Bible. On: Ideology explains state and collective violence
Against HR · Wounded Knee happened because control of the U.S. Senate hung on one contested South Dakota seat. On: Rates of violence are set by material conditions such as poverty and unemployment
Alongside LR · Burke and Hare were the predictable product of a supply structure in which a cadaver was worth six months' wages. On: Rates of violence are set by material conditions such as poverty and unemployment
Alongside DH · Socialist ideology did not cause Stalinist violence, whose techniques came from a European repertoire of modern state practice. On: Ideology explains state and collective violence
Alongside DF · In a de-industrializing America with no dignified inner-city jobs, crack dealers were the Horatio Alger boys of their time. On: Rates of violence are set by material conditions such as poverty and unemployment
Alongside AW · Beijing's red guard factions came from the same politically reliable families and fought because China's leaders were divided. On: Ideology explains state and collective violence
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