Ruling Russia: Authoritarianism from the Revolution to Putin.

• Author: Khalilzada, Javadbay
• Position: Book review

By William Zimmerman

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014, 344 pages, $27,88, ISBN: 9780691161488.

Reviewed by Javadbay Khalilzada, Istanbul Sehir University

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In his book, Ruling Russia: Authoritarianism from the Revolution to Putin, William Zimmerman illustrates how the Russian political system unfolded in roughly a century from the Bolshevik Revolution to the beginning of Putin's third term of the presidency, 2012. The main argument that the author demonstrates is how the Russian political system continues to exist with its constant authoritarian spirit.

"Is Russia, was it, or will it be a normal country" (p. 1) is the central question of the book. The term "normal" was used by Mikhail Gorbachev (p. 171) and Boris Yeltsin (p. 196), referring to a "democratic" Western style country. However, as the author emphasizes (pp. 174; 202), both Gorbachev and Yeltsin tried to consolidate their power with a new approach, rather than making Russia a "normal" country.

To begin with in the first chapter, the writer illustrates that after the revolution, Russia had the chance to build a democratic country. The most open elections prior to the Gorbachev era, were held immediately after the Bolshevik seizure of power, Socialist Peasantry got a majority of votes and Bolsheviks finished second. However, the Bolsheviks decision to withdraw from World War I and the Brest-Litovsk Treaty let the Bolsheviks to receive the support of the majority and stay in power. But the decision was not approved easily, even in the Central Committee and disagreements between Committee members and trade unions leaders produced a weakened Central Committee. One of the turning points towards authoritarianism was the tenth party congress, which resulted in eliminating ordinary workers as part of the selectorate in the Central Committee. Moreover, with subsequent actions, the Communist Party rapidly transformed into a large administrative apparatus, and the leadership was capable of enforcing its policy preferences without debating them in the Central Committee. Developments in 1920 and 1921 transformed the Party as an organization into what was basically the entity that persisted until glasnost.

Until chapter five, the author, discusses the betrayal of revolutionary ideas and mobilization of all power into the hands of the party, particularly the victory of Joseph Stalin over his rivals. In the beginning of the 1920s, trade unions were deprived of the...