Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894-1917

by Anna Geifman

Overview

Anna Geifman examines the explosion of terrorist activity that took place in the Russian empire from the years just prior to the turn of the century through 1917, a period when over 17,000 people were killed or wounded by revolutionary extremists. On the basis of new research, she argues that a multitude of assassination attempts, bombings, ideologically motivated robberies, and incidents of armed assault, kidnapping, extortion, and blackmail for party purposes played a primary role in the revolution of 1905 and early twentieth-century Russian political history in general.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691221458
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	388
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Anna Geifman is Assistant Professor of History at Boston University.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	Acknowledgments	xi
	Introduction	3
Chapter 1	Revolutionary Terrorism in the Empire: Background, Extent, and Impact	11
Chapter 2	The Party of Socialists-Revolutionaries and Terror	45
Chapter 3	The Social Democrats and Terror	84
Chapter 4	Terrorists of a New Type: The Anarchists and the Obscure Extremist Groups	123
Chapter 5	The "Seamy Side" of the Revolution: The Criminal Element, the Psychologically Unbalanced, and Juveniles	154
Chapter 6	The United Front: Interparty Connections and Cooperation	181
Chapter 7	The Kadets and Terror	207
Chapter 8	The End of Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia	223
	Epilogue	249
	Notes	257
	Bibliography	357
	Index	367

What People are Saying About This

Hules

[Geifman] argues effectively that those who practiced individual acts of violence against tsarist officials and the population in general had a much more destructive effect on the imperial regime than has generally been acknowledged in the historical literature.
— James W. Hules, "Terrorism and Political Violence"

From the Publisher

"[Geifman] argues effectively that those who practiced individual acts of violence against tsarist officials and the population in general had a much more destructive effect on the imperial regime than has generally been acknowledged in the historical literature."—James W. Hules, Terrorism and Political Violence

Editorial Reviews

"Professor Geifman . . . dissects with surgical precision the couple of decades that preceded the Bolshevik seizure of power, a time when a beleaguered tsarist regime groped desperately, and failed to find, some means of defending itself."

Virginia Quarterly Review

"This book makes gripping reading. . . . Geifman's detailed account makes it clear that in fact the wave of terrorism broke out more or less spontaneously, and amounted more to a universal breakdown of law and order than to a 'movement.'"—-Edward Ross Dickinson, New England Slavonic Journal

From the Publisher

This book makes gripping reading. . . . Geifman's detailed account makes it clear that in fact the wave of terrorism broke out more or less spontaneously, and amounted more to a universal breakdown of law and order than to a 'movement.'

New England Slavonic Journal - Edward Ross Dickinson

This book makes gripping reading. . . . Geifman's detailed account makes it clear that in fact the wave of terrorism broke out more or less spontaneously, and amounted more to a universal breakdown of law and order than to a 'movement.'
— Edward Ross Dickinson

New England Slavonic Journal