Federalism had enormous reformist potential in revolutionary Russia. Had the Bolsheviks implemented it successfully, federalism could have brought the country to the threshold of political modernity and marked its new leaders as innovators. This unusual book provides the first in depth examination of the debates on federalism under the Czars and the Bolsheviks initial embracing of federation, and it reveals just how close Russia came to establishing the Weberian principle of traditional legal authority. Moreover, Russias first federation-the RSFSR-was based on nationality, and its realization...