Hennadiy Yefimenko What is the "Ukrainian October"?
Hennadii Yefimenko reviews the book of Odessa historian-Marxist Andrii Zdorov "Ukrainian October: Worker-Peas ant Revolution in Ukraine." Noting the book's strengths (thorough historiographical analysis, knowledge of sources), Yefimenko criticizes Zdorov's construction as an attempt to idealize the early period of the Bolshevik rule in Ukraine (November 1917 -February 1918). According to Zdorov, Bolsheviks prevailed at the time because they assumed leadership of "the liberation struggle of Ukrainian workers and peasants." The reviewer uses concrete examples to demonstrate Zdorov's selective use of memoir literature and sources, simplified interpretation of the problem of national composition of Bolshevik organizations, terminological ambiguities in the text.