This dissertation examines the formation and ramifications of the Russian Civil War cult, a system of signs, codes, and meanings that instructed Soviet citizens how properly to be socialist and how to thrive under the regime. By analyzing public rituals of the 1920s and 1930s designed to commemorate the Civil War and its heroes, this project demonstrates the numerous ways in which the state attempted to inculcate Soviet values and a willingness to sacrifice one's life for the state. However, Soviet citizens often responded to war imagery in ways that the regime did not expect, co-opting cult values to suit their own everyday circumstances or to lobby the state for changes in their local regions. Examining the story of the cult of the Civil War through the traumatic years of industrialization, collectivization, and terror recasts how the Soviet state and society came to terms with these dramatic transformations. A central focus of the dissertation concerns the construction of Civil War heroes in literature and film, the most prominent of them being the famed commander Chapaev. The 1934 film Chapaev represented a critical mode of contact between the state and everyday citizens, in which people acted not only as spectators, but as active participants, allowing them to "play out" the Civil War in their own lives through celebratory fanfare, artistic expression like theater and poetry, and a shared cinematic experience. In this way, the state successfully transmitted images of unity and heroism to the population. The film became a cultural phenomenon, providing people with an outlet for feelings of powerlessness. Watching Chapaev was a method of coping with the dilemmas of everyday life. Built on a varied source base, using published literature and archival documents, including letters from citizens, official memoranda, stenograms, newspapers, and journals, this dissertation explores various public forms of Civil War pageantry, such as monument building, exhibitions in Moscow's Red Army Museum, Maxim Gorky's collected war history, and the twentieth anniversary celebrations of the Red Army in 1938. Finally, the dissertation addresses the cult's disintegration in the late 1930s during the chaos and uncertainty of the Great Terror.

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This dissertation is about American Red Cross and YMCA work in revolutionary and civil war Russia. It focuses on the most significant phases of these organizations’ efforts in terms of the numbers of personnel involved and the funds expended: Moscow and Petrograd, 1917–18; northern Russia during the Allied military intervention, 1918–19; and Siberia and the Russian Far East, from 1918 through the early 1920s. By drawing on dozens of often underused archival collections this study is able to discuss these “constructive efforts” in much fuller detail than have existing works. The activities of the Americans who worked in Russia, rather than those who made policy from afar, are of primary interest. The concern here, beyond the what, where, and who, is why: Why did American relief or social service work occur? The answers, of which there are several, include a desire to provide assistance to suffering populations. But the humanitarian impulse was often not the one that carried the day when decisions about policy and practice were taken. Military concerns were important, especially while the Great War still raged on the western front, and while Allied and American soldiers fought Russian Bolsheviks. American relief workers also saw themselves as contributing directly to relations between Russia and Russians on the one hand, and the United States, the Allies, and the American people on the other. They were moved to carry out their work because they saw the importance of it for the present and future of relations between the two countries. Americans in Russia also took advantage of the presence of soldiers, civilian refugees, and former prisoners of war from a variety of European countries to spread the good word about all things American. Ultimately, Americans viewed revolutionary Russia through the lens of modernization. With American help, the future could be bright. With the right leadership in place to oversee their education, honest, hardworking, and intellectually curious peasants (as they were described by contemporary observers) could be turned into modern citizens. The Russian project failed to achieve its promise, but for a time Americans retained their optimism about Russia’s future.

This dissertation is about American Red Cross and YMCA work in revolutionary and civil war Russia. It focuses on the most significant phases of these organizations’ efforts in terms of the numbers of personnel involved and the funds expended: Moscow and Petrograd, 1917–18; northern Russia during the Allied military intervention, 1918–19; and Siberia and the Russian Far East, from 1918 through the early 1920s. By drawing on dozens of often underused archival collections this study is able to discuss these “constructive efforts” in much fuller detail than have existing works. The activities of the Americans who worked in Russia, rather than those who made policy from afar, are of primary interest. The concern here, beyond the what, where, and who, is why: Why did American relief or social service work occur? The answers, of which there are several, include a desire to provide assistance to suffering populations. But the humanitarian impulse was often not the one that carried the day when decisions about policy and practice were taken. Military concerns were important, especially while the Great War still raged on the western front, and while Allied and American soldiers fought Russian Bolsheviks. American relief workers also saw themselves as contributing directly to relations between Russia and Russians on the one hand, and the United States, the Allies, and the American people on the other. They were moved to carry out their work because they saw the importance of it for the present and future of relations between the two countries. Americans in Russia also took advantage of the presence of soldiers, civilian refugees, and former prisoners of war from a variety of European countries to spread the good word about all things American. Ultimately, Americans viewed revolutionary Russia through the lens of modernization. With American help, the future could be bright. With the right leadership in place to oversee their education, honest, hardworking, and intellectually curious peasants (as they were described by contemporary observers) could be turned into modern citizens. The Russian project failed to achieve its promise, but for a time Americans retained their optimism about Russia’s future.

En 1917, les Bolcheviks prennent le pouvoir en Russie, répudient la dette extérieure, nationalisent les entreprises privées et imposent un début de gestion soviétique à l’économie. La France, dont les liens économiques avec la Russie ont été largement renforcés durant les trois décennies d’avant-guerre, voit ses immenses avoirs dans l’ancien Empire compromis. Les milieux privés français, qui sont les plus lésés parmi ceux des puissances alliées, réagissent fortement à ce changement de régime. Ce mémoire s’intéresse à ces milieux d’affaires et cherche à comprendre comment ils réagissent à la prise de pouvoir soviétique. Jouent-ils un rôle dans l’évolution du processus décisionnel vers l’intervention militaire? Ont-ils un impact sur le terrain en Russie? Comment subissent-ils l’échec final des efforts français? Nous démontrons que le facteur économique est central dans l’adoption d’une politique interventionniste. Nous étudions également comment le gouvernement cherche à soutenir les milieux privés discrètement, mais les utilise surtout pour avancer ses propres intérêts en Russie. Enfin, nous démontrons que l’échec des milieux privés à protéger leurs intérêts a de nombreuses causes communes avec l’échec de l’intervention militaire. / In 1917, the Bolshevik party seized power in Russia, repudiated state debt, nationalized private enterprises and imposed early forms of Soviet management to the economy. France, whose economic ties with Russia had largely grown during the three previous decades, saw her huge investments in the country compromised. The French private sector, by far the most affected of all Allied powers, reacted strongly to this regime change. This memoir focuses on the subsequent actions of the private sector, and seeks to understand how they reacted to the Bolshevik’s coming to power. Did they play a role in the process of decision-making towards military intervention? Did they have any impact on the ground in Russia? How did they react to the ultimate failure of the intervention and the loss of their assets? We demonstrate that the economic factor was central in the adoption of an interventionist policy. We also examine how the French government discreetly tried to support the private sector, but mostly used it to advance its own interests in Russia. Finally, we demonstrate that the failure of the private sector to defend its interests has many common causes with the failure of the military intervention itself.

俄國內戰包含了許多面向，其過程不是官方紀錄所登載的表象，蘇維埃政權的因應之道是依循既定步驟計畫，抑或是只是蘇維埃政權順應時勢且戰且走的結果，對日後蘇維埃國家的產生有何種催化作用是本文的研究動機。本文的中心旨在探究俄國革命初成在奪權成功後，內戰對蘇維埃政權鞏固的挑戰，戰爭期間俄國社會經歷的變遷，以及因應戰爭的進行蘇維埃政權的回應之道。 / Unlike the single-dimensioned description by the Soviet government, the Russian civil war includes many dimensions.What is the response of the Soviet government to the civil war and how it enables the creation of the Soviet Union is the motive of the dissertation.The main purpose of the dissertation focuses on how the soviet regime faces the challenges of power consolidation, the social changes during the war and the response of the soviet government after the Bolshevik party seizes the power.

Development and Organization of Military Judiciary within the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia During more than 6 years of its existence, the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia underwent fundamental organizational changes, which were related to the transformation of a small volunteer unit into an army of many thousands of an independent state. In examining the organizational development of the legionary military justice, it is necessary to take into account the military-political circumstances in which the Czechoslovak army operated in Russia. In the period from the establishment of the legions in 1914 to 1917, the legions were an organizational part of the Russian Tsarist army and all organizational structure, including the administration of justice, was carried out by the relevant Russian authorities under Russian law. In the second half of 1917, despite the disintegration of the Russian armed forces, there was a massive development of the Czechoslovak legions, but without a corresponding development of the judicial service. A key prerequisite for building their own military justice was the exclusion of Russian legions from the Russian army and their inclusion in the autonomous Czechoslovak army in France. At the same time, a modified French disciplinary code was adopted, which was the first independent...

This Master’s thesis explores Jewish masculinity and identity within early twentieth-century literature (1903-1925), using texts written by Jewish authors in late imperial Russia and the early Soviet Union. This was a period of change for Russia’s Jewish community, involving increased secularization and reform, massive pogroms such as in Kishinev in 1903, newfound leadership within the 1905 and 1917 Revolutions, and a rise in both Zionist and Revolutionary ideology. Subsequently, Jewish literary masculinity experienced a significant shift in characterization. Historically, a praised Jewish man had been portrayed as gentle, scholarly, and faithful, yet early twentieth century Jewish male literary figures were asked to be physically strong, hypermasculine, and secular. This thesis first uses H.N. Bialik’s “In the City of Slaughter” (1903) and Sholem Aleichem’s “Tevye Goes to Palestine” (1914) to introduce a concept of “Jewish shame,” or a sentiment that historical Jewish masculinity was insufficient for a contemporary Russian world. It then creates two models for these new men to follow. The Assimilatory Jew, seen in Isaac Babel’s Red Cavalry cycle (published throughout the 1920s), held that perpetual outsider Jewish men should imitate the behaviour of a secular whole in order to be accepted. The Jewish Superman is depicted in Vladimir Jabotinsky’s “In Memory of Herzl” (1904) and Ilya Selvinsky’s “Bar Kokhba” (1920), and argues that masculine glory is entirely compatible with a proud Jewish identity, without an external standard needed. Judith Butler’s theories on gender performativity are used to analyze these diverse works, published in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian by authors of varying political alignments, to establish commonalities among these literary canons and plot a new spectrum of desired identities for Jewish men. / Graduate / 2020-04-10

The thesis deals with the Czechoslovak garisson and the diplomatic representation in Omsk during the Russian Civil War and the anti-bolshevik governments in the city (1918-1919). It focuses on the local events through the opticians mentioned above, evaluates and analyzes their role, attitudes, everyday life and relations with the White governments and the domestic population. The work is primarilly based on the study of archive sources, periodicals and memories of the participants.