[close] Although titled in the collective, Adam Ulam's masterful study of the Communists' rise to power in Russia, first published in 1965, focuses predominantly on one man, Lenin. As the historical evidence assembled by Ulam demonstrates, this is only proper; the story of the advance of the Bolsheviks is deeply interwoven with the story of Lenin. The only comparable analogues in this century, perhaps, are Gandhi's relationship to the Indian independence movement and Martin Luther King Jr.'s connection to the civil rights movement, but even these examples lack the direct link between activism and authority that Lenin achieved.

The Bolsheviks is an intellectual biography of the highest sort. Whenever there is an opportunity to ask probing questions that would clarify Lenin's position and motivations in the reader's mind, Ulam gets the answers. His language is both undaunting and precise; one comes away from this book having achieved a substantial understanding of early Soviet history without ever having felt plunged in over one's head. [close]