Reviews 683 mid-1922, during which the countryside seethed with unrest and numerous partisan groups emerged and fought against the regime. The author focuses on one particularly tenacious and well-organized uprising against the Soviets which took place mainly in 1921 in a few uezdy of the Tambov region and lasted for about nine months. Material about this "antonovshchina," so baptized by the authorities after Antonov who was its leader, is not easily available. Professor Radkey's qualities as patient and competent researcher allowed him to gather every possible scrap of evidence, but the results of his work are nevertheless disappointing. The author believes ardently that the different bands and groups of those "greens" were actually "a movement"—a term which connotes some degree of unity and com- munity of goals; moreover, he even believes that this "movement" and leaders like Antonov presented a genuine democratic and revolutionary alternative for Russia against which both the "reds" and the "whites" conspired, and which finally the Bolsheviks put down. This opinion led the author to try to write an epic, when the material a t hand would sustain no more than a modest monograph. Even after having read this over- sized volume, we still are not clear about the character of the partisans and their leader and we certainly are at a loss as to why Radkey endowed Antonov's and similar uprisings with the quality of a serious "third force" and a potentially viable political alternative. If anything, his own material serves to disprove such a contention. The uprisings were strictly local in scope; Antonov and other leaders were unable to cooperate with each other and had no positive unifying program. Once the regime introduced the N E P , the peasants' discontent subsided and their support for the uprisings dried up. Deprived of such support, the partisans who persisted inevitably degenerated into banditry. M O S H E L E W I N University of Birmingham F O R M I R O V A N I E S O V E T S K O I U N I V E R S I T E T S K O I S I S T E M Y (1917-1938 GG.). By Sh. Kh. Chanbarisov. Ufa: Bashkirskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo, 1973. 473 pp. "Is it true that after the Revolution you preserved your universities?" a French in- tellectual somewhat incredulously asked a visiting Soviet scientist during the 1920s. Unlike the Jacobins, the Bolsheviks did indeed retain the concept of the university, though not without considerable internal dissension and a brief period (1928-32) when most universities were subdivided into autonomous institutes. The present work is an exhaustive study of the fluctuating development of Soviet university policy during its most formative stages. The author, a historian who is currently the rector of Bashkir State University, stresses Lenin's belief that universities, with their emphasis on broad, general, and theoretical studies, should have pride of place over technical institutes and other more narrowly vocational educational institutions. This idea came under increasing attack during the twenties by "ultra-leftists," who regarded universities as the strongholds of bourgeois culture and impractical knowledge, but was reaffirmed and decisively im- plemented by the educational reforms of the thirties. Following the footsteps of histo- rians such as S. A. Fediukin, Chanbarisov argues that Lenin assiduously wooed the "old" intelligentsia (in this case the professoriate), the vast majority of which are portrayed, as eventually overcoming their initial hostility and wholeheartedly casting their lot with the Soviet government. Overlooked are instances of terror such as the execution of the pro-rector of Petrograd University in 1921 and the fact that it was 684 Slavic Review Lenin's decree on open admissions that effectively torpedoed promising cooperation on university reform in 1918. The author has made extensive and fruitful use of central state and party archives. Relatively little attention, however, is devoted to the ways in which central directives were implemented in the localities or to the development of higher education among the national minorities. The work is characteristic of Brezhnev-era historiography. The name Stalin does .; not appear once, nor is there even the slightest reference to the purges of the thirties, despite their great impact on higher education. On the other hand, the author confronts - with refreshing candor, thoroughness, and documentation less sensitive examples of "mistaken" policies, such as efforts to replace the lecture system with group-learning methods or to vocationalize the higher educational system. Chanbarisov's book can be read on several different levels: as an implicit defense of cultural policies advocated by officially denounced "rightists" such as Rykov and Bukharin; as a plea for the continued influence of specialists in contemporary policy making; and as yet another attack on Maoist concepts of cultural revolution. But it is primarily a work of scholarship, and despite some shortcomings in this respect, it should be welcomed as the most comprehensive account of the history of Soviet higher education yet to appear. J A M E S C. MCCLELLAND University of California, Santa Barbara G E S C H I C H T E D E R E V A N G E L I S C H - L U T H E R I S C H E N G E M E I N D E N IN D E R S O V E T U N I O N , 1917-1938. By Wilhelm Kahle. Studien zur Geschichte Osteuropas, 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1974. xii, 625 pp. 120 Dglds. This history of the Evangelical-Lutheran parishes in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1938 is the sixteenth volume of the highly useful series "Studies in East European History," edited by a group of prominent German, American, French, and Italian scholars. The author of this volume, Wilhelm Kahle, has already published a number of books and articles on the development and fate of Protestant parishes in Russia and on relations between Baltic Protestantism and the Russian Orthodox church. Kahle is very well acquainted with the subject matter and has used all available sources in order to present as complete a picture as possible on the fate of the Evangelical- Lutheran church in Russia under the Communist regime. He covers the organization, struggle,, and sufferings of German, Finnish, Swedish, Estonian, Latvian, and Armenian parishes, which comprised some one million faithful. Kahle has brought his story all the way from the beginning of the Communist revolution in Russia in 1917 to 1938, when the last Evangelical-Lutheran parish was closed, thus ending organized Lutheran church life in the Soviet Union. One can admire Kahle's scholarship and diligence throughout the entire fact- filled volume. The subject matter has been handled with great honesty and objectivity, considering the various elements which had affected the life of Protestant parishes in Russia. The work is based mainly on studies of original documents which have found their way to the Western world. Kahle's footnoting is extensive and his bibliography is excellent. His volume has been supplemented by a great number of documents which have been reproduced fully and cover 136 pages. Despite the fact that the book deals only with the fate of Lutherans and excludes Baptists, Mennonites, Evangelists, and various small sects, it can be highly recom- mended for both scholars and general readers interested in the history of organized religious life in the Soviet Union. EDGAR ANDERSON San JosS State University