The clash between scholarship and politics—between truth and propaganda—was ruthless for historians in Istpart, the Russian Communist Central Committee’s official historical department.
Istpart was tasked with preserving the documentary record, compiling memoirs, and upholding ideological conformism within the national narrative of the 1917 revolution. In Revising the Revolution, Larry E. Holmes examines the role of Istpart’s historians, in both the Moscow office and a regional branch in Viatka, who initially believed they could adhere to the traditional standards of research and simultaneously provide a history useful to the party. However, they quickly realized that the party rejected any version of history that suggested nonideological or nonpolitical sources of truth. By 1928, Istpart had largely abandoned its mission to promote scholarly work on the 1917 revolution and instead advanced the party’s master narrative.
Revising the Revolution explores the battle for the Russian national narrative and the ways in which history can be used to centralize power.
Table of Content
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Abbreviations
Timeline
Introduction
1. Istpart’s Origins and Mission
2. At the Periphery
3. Multiple Scripts for 1905 and 1917
4. Viatka’s 1917 Revolution in the Past and the Present
5. Fractured Finances
6. Moscow’s Embrace of the Political
7. The Passing of Istpart and Professional Civility
8. Methodology Ex Cathedra: Stalin Speaks and Istpart’s Legacy
9. Their Fate
Conclusion
Glossary of Prominent Individuals
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the author
Larry E. Holmes is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Alabama. He is author of Kremlin and the Schoolhouse: Reforming Education in Soviet Russia, 1917–1931; Stalin’s School: Moscow’s Model School No. 25, 1931–1937; and Stalin’s World War II Evacuations: Triumph and Troubles in Kirov.
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