Moscow, Nauka Publishing House. 1970. 579 pp. The print run is 3,300. Price 2 rubles 56 kopecks.

The historical experience of the revolutionary struggle of the Russian working class "has gone down in history as the conquest of socialism, and on this experience,"said V. I. Lenin," the future international revolution will build its socialist edifice. " 1 The book of Doctor of Historical Sciences L. S. Gaponenko is devoted to the revolutionary creativity of the working class of Russia in 1917. This serious, multi-faceted study brings a lot of new and valuable information to the scientific development of the problem, contains an analysis of the achievements of Soviet historiography in this area, and reveals the degree to which the most important aspects of the topic have been studied.

The monograph is a contribution to the study of the history of the working class and the labor movement in the period of preparation and implementation of the socialist revolution. Based on a wealth of documentary and statistical material, in the light of Lenin's theoretical propositions, the author examines the structure of the Russian working class, traces the dynamics of the number of all categories of wage workers on the eve of Great October. L. S. Gaponenko rightly notes that much attention has recently been paid to this issue. As a result, data on the number of the industrial proletariat became less controversial. However, scientific statistics on the size of the Russian working class during this period leave much to be desired. The literature still contains contradictory data on certain categories of wage workers.

The book clarifies the information previously published by the author about certain categories of hired workers employed in small (artisanal) enterprises, etc. Analyzing the statistical and archival material, L. S. Gaponenko concludes that the peculiarity of the monopolistic development of Russian industry was that under the favorable military situation, production and labor were rapidly concentrated in a few monopolistic associations. This put Russia in the first place in the world in terms of the concentration of the proletariat. At the same time, in Russia, a large group of the proletariat consisted of workers employed at home, in small-scale (artisanal) production, which was at the stage of manufacturing development. There were relatively many unskilled laborers and day laborers, which characterizes the relatively low technical level of Russian industry. In total, according to the author's calculations, industrial workers, along with railway and water transport workers and construction workers, as well as laborers and day laborers, numbered

1 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 36. p. 383.

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approximately 10.6 million people (p. 71). The author paid much attention to the change in the size of the agricultural proletariat, and the still poorly studied question of its role in the October Revolution. As is well known, V. I. Lenin attached great importance to involving this section of the workers in the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat. "Victory can be considered assured only when,"said V. I. Lenin," not only the urban workers but also the rural proletarians are organized. " 2 The number of agricultural workers in pre-revolutionary Russia reached 4.5 million (p. 71). In total, the author counts up to 15 million hired workers in industry, transport, construction and agriculture (excluding workers and employees employed in the service sector, and small employees of factory enterprises). According to the author's calculations, the total number of employees employed in the production sector was 18.5 million (p. 75). In addition, he rightly believes that the total number of the working class in Russia in 1917 should include almost half a million unemployed people.

The study of the dynamics of the size of the Russian proletariat is of great scientific and political importance, and makes it possible to reveal more fully the social base and driving forces of the October Revolution. This issue, as emphasized in the book, is becoming particularly political in modern conditions. Exposing the Menshevik "theory" about the absence of a social base for a socialist revolution in Russia, V. I. Lenin wrote as early as September 1913:: "We probably have about 20 million proletarians... and here the figures are approximate, but any other figures that anyone would try to justify more precisely would only strengthen my conclusions even more " 3 .

The book examines in detail the changes in the composition of the working class that took place during the war of 1914-1917 in connection with the mobilization of conscription age groups and the new recruitment of hired workers. Of particular scientific value is the section devoted to the distribution of the proletariat in the main industrial regions of the country. Unfortunately, there is still no specific research on the geographical distribution of the working class. Meanwhile, this question is of great importance for understanding the reasons for the rapid victory of the Bolsheviks in October 1917. The pages that reveal the role of the working class as the decisive force in the February bourgeois-democratic revolution in Russia are read with interest. The author traces the process of transformation of the general political strike of the Petrograd proletariat into an armed uprising, the course of the revolution, its victory and the creation of dual power. The book shows that the February Revolution did not follow the path of ordinary bourgeois revolutions, but came very close to establishing the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry. The author convincingly reveals how the role of the working class has grown immeasurably in these new and difficult conditions. The book analyzes the many-sided activities of the Bolshevik Party, which prepared the working class of Russia for the role of hegemon of all the democratic forces of the country, leader and militant ally of the multi-million-strong working peasantry of Russia.

L. S. Gaponenko attaches great importance to one of the central issues of the history of the Russian working class in 1917 - the revolutionary work of the proletariat, including the creation of such mass organizations as Soviets, trade unions, factory committees, detachments of workers ' militia and Red Guards, youth and women's organizations that rallied millions of workers in the struggle for the victory of the socialist revolution. Of particular interest are the pages of the book that reveal the history of the creation of factory committees, which by the summer of 1917 had a well-organized organizational structure and covered the vast majority of enterprises. The author covers the many-sided revolutionary activity of the proletariat, its economic and political struggle against the monopolistic bourgeoisie and the Provisional Government.

On a large documentary material, the author shows the anti-people policy of the Provisional Government, which brought the country to the brink of a national catastrophe. L. S. Gaponenko reveals the treacherous position of the Menshevik-SR leaders, who joined the Provisional Government together with representatives of the monopoly bourgeoisie and were promptly exposed by the revolutionary vanguard of the working class. The documents identified and analyzed by the author speak eloquently about the political maturity and high organization of the Russian proletariat,

2 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 37, p. 508.

3 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 24, p. 34.

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who exposed all the tricks of the bourgeoisie and all the defenders of its interests. The book contains new archival material about the growth of the strike movement on the eve of Great October. A total of 2.3 million workers participated in strikes in the country during the preparation of the armed uprising in September and October 1917 (p. 436).

The author pays great attention to the organizational and political work carried out by the proletariat to win over the masses of soldiers to the side of the revolution. "If the revolution does not become a mass one," wrote V. I. Lenin, "and does not capture the army itself, then there can be no question of a serious struggle." 4 The military independence of the soldiers ' committees, convincingly described in the book, contributed to the victory of the proletariat over the general counter-revolution. "If there were no army committees," the Bolshevik newspaper Rabochy Put noted, "the army would be a toy in the hands of counter-revolutionary generals." 5
L. S. Gaponenko carefully traces how the working class, led by the Communist Party, won over the broad masses of soldiers and peasants to its side, and led the heroic struggle of the working masses for social and national liberation. The author emphasizes that the working class of Russia was closely connected with the population of the national suburbs. This ultimately provided the real basis for an unprecedented broad front of revolutionary forces, the cementing core of which was the Russian working class. An important role in the preparation of the socialist revolution, as noted in the book, was played by organizations of working youth and proletarian women.

The reviewed monograph is not without some shortcomings. Until now, there is no scientific definition of the composition of the army of wage workers in Russia on the eve of Great October and the dynamics of its numerical composition. The literature on this issue has provided a wide variety of data-from 12 to 22 million people. Apparently, it would be advisable for the author to consider this issue in more detail. We cannot agree with L. S. Gaponenko that "all trade unions... they were built according to the production principle" (p. 289). The Bolshevik Party waged a long and stubborn struggle against the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, who succeeded in turning individual trade unions on the path of tsekhovism. Until the autumn of 1917, the trade unions were unable to overcome this fragmentation and shop-keeping. Along with the large industrial unions, there were hundreds of small and even" branded " trade unions. The paper does not adequately describe the forms and methods of party leadership of the professional movement in Russia and the process of Bolshevization of trade unions and factory committees.

The questions of the objective inevitability of the socialist revolution in Russia, its popular character, the role of the working class and its vanguard, the Communist Party, and the place of trade unions in the revolution are, as is well known, the subject of acute ideological struggle. Bourgeois ideologues try to refute the historical mission of the working class in the revolutionary transformation of society. Unfortunately, there is not enough space in the book to criticize the falsifiers of history, although the extensive factual material allowed the author to pay more attention to this. In some of its parts, the book is overloaded with factual and digital material.

4 V. I. Lenin. PSS Vol. 13, p. 372.

5 Rabochy Put, 3. IX. 1917.

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