Why did the most unruly proletariat of the Twentieth Century come to
tolerate the ascendancy of a political and economic system that, by
every conceivable measure, proved antagonistic to working-class
interests? Revolution and Counterrevolution is at the center of the
ongoing discussion about class identities, the Russian Revolution, and
early Soviet industrial relations. Based on exhaustive research in four
factory-specific archives, it is unquestionably the most thorough
investigation to date on working-class life during the revolutionary
era. Focusing on class conflict and workers' frequently changing
response to management and state labor policies, the study also
meticulously reconstructs everyday life: from leisure activities to
domestic issues, the changing role of women, and popular religious
belief. Its unparalleled immersion in an exceptional variety of sources
at the factory level and its direct engagement with the major
interpretive questions about the formation of the Stalinist system will
force scholars to re-evaluate long-held assumptions about early Soviet
society.