About this episode

This episode commemorates the life and work of historian Alexander Rabinowitch, featuring a re-release of a 2017 interview with him.

When I opened Facebook this morning, as I do every morning, I learned that Alexander Rabinowitch died at 91 years old. Rabinowitch was arguably one of the most important historians of the Russian Revolution. It's hard to state how much Rabinowitch's work influence our understanding of 1917. Before him, it was assumed that the Bolsheviks were a highly disciplined, unpopular political party that came to power through a coup. What Rabinowitch repeatedly showed in his four books on Revolution, the Bolsheviks had popular support, most importantly in factories in Petrograd and in other large cities and at the front. Lenin's slogans, particularly, "Peace, Land, Bread!" had mass support, and by October 1917, successfully rode a wave of revolution into power. And now that Alexander Rabinowitch has left us, I figured I’d dig out my old interview with him from 2017, clean it up, and re-release it to commemorate the life and work of this scholarly giant. Guest: Alexander Rabinowitch was a Professor Emeritus of History at Indiana University, where he taught from 1968 until 1999. He’s the author of four books on the Russian Revolution: Prelude to Revolution: The Petrograd Bolsheviks and the…

People in this episode

Guest: Alexander Rabinowitch

Topics covered

• Russian Revolution
• historical analysis
• Bolsheviks
• Alexander Rabinowitch
• historical impact
• interview

Keywords

• Alexander Rabinowitch
• Russian Revolution
• Bolsheviks
• historian
• 1917
• interview

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Indiana University

Books & works: Prelude to Revolution: The Petrograd Bolsheviks and the July 1917 Uprising, The Bolsheviks Come To Power: The Revolution of 1917 in Petrograd, The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd, The Bolsheviks Survive: Petrograd 1919

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