Vatlin A. Y. Everyday life of the Revolution: Soviet Bavaria routine in April, 1919

Abstract: The history of Bavarian Soviet Republic, proclaimed by anarchists and leftist socialists («independents») on the 6th of April 1919, and brought back to life a week later, and then decimated by government forces in early May 1919, was considered a controversial topic in Soviet media and historiography. A broad spectrum of ideological opponents of the Soviet experiment in Southern Bavaria used those events as means of proving the utopic nature of Revolutionary plans of exiting the post-World War I crisis. The evaluation of historical experience by both opponents and proponents of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, had one thing in common – the evaluation of its historical experience in comparison to the Bolshevik dictatorship, its social and economic politics, the struggle between the Bavarian Red Army and the white movement. Outside scholarly interest, the everyday life of the vast majority of the population remained – those that were involved into the Revolutionary process passively, instead of actively. However, it was its mood and sway, action and inaction that determined the tragic face of the Soviet Bavarian Republic in the end. Addressing the topic of revolutionary everyday life and accenting its importance for the effort to reconstruct the complex picture of Bavarian Soviet Republic’s history, the author keeps the scarce source base of such research in mind. Along with the brief existence of the Republic itself, with its capital city situated in Munich, and the deliberate eradication of its documentary heritage, largely due to the fact that the Communists forbade the publication of newspapers, independent of the central authority, and classified as Bourgeoisie press. Yet still, not all is lost. The author’s research was saved by the numerous diaries of contemporaries and witnesses, the majority of which were published as early as 1960—1970s, as well as rich memoire based which emerged in the period between the World Wars. Lastly, a significant amount of information about the life in Bavarian Soviet Republic was contributed by judicial practice, which was preserved in the State’s attorney funds and archives.

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