Dr. Pipes's series of books on Russian history, with emphasis on the Bolshevik coup d'etat, is excellent - especially his revelations of Lenin's character and actions, for those who would blame it all only on Stalin.

Unfortunately, this volume came out just as Hermann Rauschning's "memoires,"
most often entited "Hitler's Speaks" or "The Voice of Destruction," were conclusively shown to be concocted (their author admitted as much before he died in Oregon in the early 1990's - see articles in Der Spiegel). Rauschning is the source of quotations from Hitler cited in the fifth chapter to bolster Dr. Pipes' very valid contention that Bolshevism was the spiritual basis for National Socialism.
The chapter should be rewritten - but only that chapter.

Towards the end of "Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime" comes this memorable statement:  "Communism failed because it proceeded from the erroneous doctrine of the Enlightenment, perhaps the most pernicious idea in the history of thought, that man is merely a material compound, devoid of either soul or innate ideas, and as such a passive product of an infinitely malleable social environment. . .he cannot pass on the lessons he has been forced to learn to his children, who come into this world ever fresh, asking questions that are supposed to have been settled once and for all."
Dr. Pipes's series of books on Russian history, with emphasis on the Bolshevik coup d'etat, is excellent - especially his revelations of Lenin's character and actions, for those who would blame it all only on Stalin. Unfortunately, this volume came out just as Hermann Rauschning's "memoires,"
most often entited "Hitler's Speaks" or "The Voice of Destruction," were conclusively shown to be concocted (their author admitted as much before he died in Oregon in the early 1990's - see articles in Der Spiegel). Rauschning is the source of quotations from Hitler cited in the fifth chapter to bolster Dr. Pipes' very valid contention that Bolshevism was the spiritual basis for National Socialism. The chapter should be rewritten - but only that chapter. Towards the end of "Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime" comes this memorable statement:  "Communism failed because it proceeded from the erroneous doctrine of the Enlightenment, perhaps the most pernicious idea in the history of thought, that man is merely a material compound, devoid of either soul or innate ideas, and as such a passive product of an infinitely malleable social environment. . . he cannot pass on the lessons he has been forced to learn to his children, who come into this world ever fresh, asking questions that are supposed to have been settled once and for all. "