Before the Revolution

In these excerpts from his brilliant new book*, a noted Soviet expert lays to rest some of the prevailing myths about Russia, then and now

Not many things about Russia, or about any nation for that matter, are beyond dispute. But one of them is that life under the old dispensation, granting its hardships, was freer and more tolerable than under the new. One need only read a few of the Rus- sian classic novels, even those bitter about the life of their time, to see this. Whatever yardstick is used— economic, political, cultural, spiritual —the pre-Bolshevik past stacks up as humanly more attractive. Given a choice based on fact rather than propaganda fable, only Russians with a relish for suffering could prefer the present system.