Overtaken by the Night

Reviews / Votes

Overtaken by the Night is an extremely detailed account of Vladimir Dzhunkovsky's life. His story spans not just one, but several of the most tumultuous periods in modern Russian history, and Robbins nicely positions Dzhunkovsky's life as a way to tell the story of the Soviet revolution from its inception to its bloody aftermath.
Dzhunkovsky played prominent roles in some of Russia's most important history: World War I, the fall of the monarchy, the communist revolution, and Stalin's purges leading up to World War II.
Along with Dzhunkovsky's public life, Robbins uses his memoirs and other historical sources to describe his personal life, from his early love for a married woman to his private thoughts on key intelligence operations. . . . A well-researched biography of a consistently influential Russian leader. * Foreword Reviews * The principal actors in the Russian revolution and the end of the monarchy are well studied. However, high-ranking functionaries such as Vladimir Dzhunkovsky (1865-1938), eventually promoted to head of the tzar's gendarmes, often receive little notice. Robbins extensively uses Dzhunkovsky's recently published memoirs to reconstruct the turbulent revolutionary era from the point of view of a nonprincipal actor; one devoted to the tzar but navigating the era while transitioning from statesman to noncitizen (lishentsy) status under Bolshevism. Robbins explains Dzhunkovsky's possible involvement with the counterintelligence effort Operation Trust in the 1920s, which identified anti-Bolsheviks. Though there is a lack of documentary evidence, that Dzhunkovsky, serving a five-year sentence, lived until the Great Purge of the 1930s gives rise to speculation by historians that he consulted with the secret police apparatus to root out counterrevolutionary groups. Later chapters illuminate the end of Russia's fight in World War II and offer more insights into the revolutionary struggle. VERDICT This new account will interest Russian historians and those just beginning to study Russian history. * Library Journal * Robbins tells a remarkable story and does so with great intelligence, insight, verve, and feeling. It will be of interest to specialists in Russian history but general readers will like its fluency and drama. * Jonathan Daly, University of Illinois at Chicago * Richard G. Robbins' follows clearly the long and complex life of Vladimir Dzhunkovsky, who held many positions in tsarist Russia, including supervisor of the political police. The book will be required reading for anyone interested in nineteenth-century radical movements. Robbins displays a literary flair and smoothly incorporates information from the Russian archives and Dzhunkovsky's memoirs. * Charles A. Ruud, Western University *