The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution had a decisive impact on the history of the twentieth century. Now, following the collapse of the Soviet regime and the opening of its archives, it is possible to step back and see the full picture of this event for the first time. This volume tells the gripping story of a Marxist revolution that was intended to transform the world, but instead visited enormous suffering on the Russian people, and, like the French Revolution before it, ended up devouring its own children. The author offers insightful descriptions of the February and October Revolutions of 1917, the Civil War, the interlude of NEP, Stalin's "revolution from above," the various Five Year Plans, and the Great Purges, all treated as discrete episodes in a twenty year process of revolution. The book incorporates data from archives that were previously inaccessible not only to Western but also to Soviet historians, as well as drawing on important recent Russian publications such as the memoirs of one of the great survivors of Soviet politics, Vyacheslav Molotov. In the bibliography, the author, an internationally known expert on Soviet history, highlights the most important of the recent scholarly works, directing readers to the burgeoning Western scholarship on the Russian Revolution in the last ten to fifteen years. This third edition uses newly available Soviet archival material and the latest Russian and Western research to provide an authoritative, compact account of one of the key events of modern history.

The Setting. The society ; The revolutionary tradition ; The 1905 revolution and its aftermath : the First World War -- 1917 : The Revolutions of February and October. The February revolution and "dual power" ; The Bolsheviks ; The popular revolution ; The political crises of the summer ; The October revolution -- The Civil War. The Civil War, the Red Army, and the Cheka ; War communism ; Visions of the new world ; The Bolsheviks in power -- NEP and the Future of the Revolution. The discipline of retreat ; The problem of bureaucracy ; The leadership struggle ; Building socialism in one country -- Stalin's Revolution. Stalin versus the right ; The industrialization drive ; Collectivization ; Cultural revolution -- Ending the Revolution. "Revolution accomplished" ; "Revolution betrayed" ; The terror.