The Formation of the Soviet Union: Communism and Nationalism, 1917-1923 by Richard PipesReview by: Barry HollingsworthThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 45, No. 105 (Jul., 1967), pp. 564-565Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4205907 .

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564 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

and we . . . are bound to uphold it in letter and in spirit'. After all Britain

had gone to war to uphold the sanctity of treaties. It is therefore hardly surprising that Yugoslavia was unable to achieve

her maximum aims. In 1915 Sir Edward Grey wrote to the righteously indignant Seton-Watson, just after the Treaty of London had been

signed: 'not one of us can get 100% of the extreme national demands'.

Professor Lederer's book is particularly important because it describes in minute detail the strains within the Yugoslav delegation. This is how

foreign policy is made. One may note, in passing, that Professor Lederer is

the editor of a book on Russian foreign policy. He is obviously fascinated

by the mechanics of decision-making. His account, which is largely based on the Trumbic papers in Zagreb, is more sympathetic to him than to Pasic. Trumbic appears from these pages as an able statesman, while Pa?ic

seems sometimes little more than a malignant gnome. It is indeed fortunate that in the last few years we have seen the publica?

tion of D. Perman's The Shaping of the Czechoslovak State, and S. D. Spector's Rumania at the Paris Peace Conference. These, together with Professor Leder? er's book and the older study on Hungary by F. Deak, have provided us

with a practically complete picture of the role of the successor-states at Paris.

London H. Hanak

Pipes, Richard. The Formation of the Soviet Union: Communism and National?

ism, igij-ig23. Revised edition, Harvard University Press, Cam?

bridge, Massachusetts, 1964. 365 pages. Bibliography. Index.

When the first edition of this work appeared in 1954 it won instant praise as the most lucid and reliable account of the nationalist revolutionary up? heavals which followed the Bolsheviks' seizure of power in October 1917. However, as Professor Pipes indicates in the preface to this revised edition, since the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU in 1956 much new material has been made available in the Soviet Union. This material has necessitated a revision of Professor Pipes's account of the subjugation of Georgia and of the formulation of the constitutional principles of the USSR. Thus, the author has rewritten the sections on the conquest of Azerbaijan and

Georgia (in Chapter V) and the whole of Chapter VI on the establish? ment of the USSR. The earlier chapters and the major part of Chapter V remain unchanged, which in itself is a tribute to the scrupulous and pains? taking research of the first edition, but at the same time an indication of the fact that with an unchanging Soviet interpretation on events in the

Ukraine, Belorussia and the Moslem borderlands, no new documents of

any significance have come to light. Professor Pipes's revision is noteworthy in that he has been able to docu?

ment in greater detail the serious clash of opinion among Communist leaders in Moscow precipitated by the conquest of Georgia. Ordzhoni- kidze's role in particular is now much clearer, and the extent of his (and

Stalin's) disagreement with Lenin is established. The rewriting of Chapter

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REVIEWS 565

VI has enabled the author to add a number of significant details to several

episodes in his complex story, and also to revise completely his account of

Stalin's role in the final phase of the formation of the Soviet Union. Stalin's opposition to the establishment of the USSR, his 'autonomisation'

project and Lenin's criticism of this, related by Professor Pipes with his usual lucidity, add a new dimension to the story and help explain Lenin's

anger and the violence of his attack on Stalin and Ordzhonikidze in

December 1922. The bibliography has been brought up to date as has the biographical

information in the excellent index, though occasional minor errors persist (e.g., A. V. Lunacharsky was born in 1875, not in 1877). These are trivial

slips, however, and merely serve to underline the great factual accuracy which the author has achieved. Until new Soviet archive material is re? leased it is difficult to see how this book can be significantly improved.

Manchester Barry Hollingsworth

Catherine Karolyi. A Life Together. George Allen & Unwin Ltd., London,

1966. 343 pages. Index.

The autobiography of Countess Karolyi, nee Andrassy, contains much that is of interest to the social historian: it depicts the life and habits of one of Hungary's greatest aristocratic families in the years before the first world war, its absolute rule over vast estates in many parts of the country, its role in political life, its attitude towards the national minorities and the

peasantry. On one family estate 'the peasants were Rumanians, "Ohlas" as we called them (the derogatory name given them by Hungarians), and

they looked less human than their beasts. We indeed considered them so.' A peasant boy who was suspected of shielding his father, a poacher, 'was

brought to our cottage, and, while the gendarmes made use of the thumb? screw and other tortures, the jovial forester questioned him. But he gave away no secret.' 'The villagers would feed their babies on dry beans soaked in vinegar.' These are some glimpses of peasant life at the begin? ning of the 20th century. Two decades later the peasants from the Parad estate still told the author 'how their children and wives had to work with? out payment, during the winter months, so as to be engaged for the harvest time'.

There are equally interesting glimpses of the high and mighty, of King Charles, during the final crisis of the Habsburg monarchy, anxiously en?

quiring of the author's husband who was suggesting to the king the names of left-wing politicians to be consulted: Ts he a Jew?' Or of Bela Kun

addressing crowds in Budapest after his return from Soviet Russia, 'like a school teacher, without revolutionary elan', quoting 'incessantly from Lenin's works'. Unfortunately, however, the author has very little to say about the first Hungarian Republic and the Bela Kun regime which she witnessed from such close quarters. The second half of the book is devoted to a description of her exile, together with Count Michael Karolyi, in

many different countries and of her return to Hungary at the end of the

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