The State versus the People: Revolutionary Justice in Russia's Civil War, 1917-1922

The State versus The People provides the first detailed account of the role of revolutionary justice in the early Soviet state. Law has often been dismissed by historians as either unimportant after the October Revolution amid the violence and chaos of civil war, or, in the absence of written codes and independent judges, little more than another means of violence alongside the secret police (Cheka). This is particularly true of the most revolutionary aspect of the new justice system, revol...