Power and Possession in the Russian Revolution

Book excerpt: "Most histories of economic life explore how markets are built. This book looks instead at how they have been dismantled. Soon after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, they began the process of transforming the economy, and indeed all of society, in accordance with communist ideology. Asserting their authority and creating a Soviet republic involved confiscating property and demolishing existing systems of exchanging goods. At a national level, industries like transport and banking were brought under state control. At the local level, everything from apartments to personal possessions were subject to seizure. In analyzing the confiscation of property and its redistribution, historian Anne O'Donnell focuses on the lived experience of revolution, drawing upon archival sources such as popular petitions, neighborhood meeting transcripts, audits of state agencies, and testimony in court cases. Telling the stories of both people who were dispossessed and the bureaucrats who inventoried and managed the property that now belonged to the state, O'Donnell reveals the making of an illiberal state, arguing that Soviet statecraft was built upon imperfect attempts to install new forms of valuation consistent with communist principles through chaotic property seizures. The work also offers a novel look at the everyday life of revolutionary Russia"--