The Bolsheviks Come to Power

This history of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Petrograd (St. Petersburg), first published in 1976, is probably most notable in the emphasis author Rabinowitch (emeritus, Russian history, Indiana U.) places on the relationships between the Bolshevik party leadership, the rank and file of the party, and the masses. The author downplays the role of party discipline in gaining power, suggesting that the party's decentralized, democratic structure and mass character in 1917 were major factors in winning over the support of workers and, crucially, military troops.