Reproduction of the original.

From an award-winning scholar comes this definitive, single-volume history that illuminates the tensions and transformations of the Russian Revolution. ​ In The Russian Revolution, acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin traces the events which ended Romanov rule, ushered the Bolsheviks into power, and introduced Communism to the world. Between 1917 and 1922, Russia underwent a complete and irreversible transformation. Taking advantage of the collapse of the Tsarist regime in the middle of World War I, the Bolsheviks staged a hostile takeover of the Russian Imperial Army, promoting mutinies and mass desertions of men in order to fulfill Lenin's program of turning the "imperialist war" into civil war. By the time the Bolsheviks had snuffed out the last resistance five years later, over 20 million people had died, and the Russian economy had collapsed so completely that Communism had to be temporarily abandoned. Still, Bolshevik rule was secure, owing to the new regime's monopoly on force, enabled by illicit arms deals signed with capitalist neighbors such as Germany and Sweden who sought to benefit-politically and economically-from the revolutionary chaos in Russia. Drawing on scores of previously untapped files from Russian archives and a range of other repositories in Europe, Turkey, and the United States, McMeekin delivers exciting, groundbreaking research about this turbulent era. The first comprehensive history of these momentous events in two decades, The Russian Revolution combines cutting-edge scholarship and a fast-paced narrative to shed new light on one of the most significant turning points of the twentieth century.

Laura Engelstein, one of the greatest scholars of Russian history, has written a searing and defining account of the Russian Revolution, the fall of the old order, and the creation of the Soviet state.

The Treaty that Ended the World Revolution. For decades, historians have been trying to understand why the "world communist revolution" that broke out in Europe in 1917-1919 in the wake of the horror of the First World War ended in defeat. The overthrow of the Russian monarchy in March 1917 and the Bolshevik coup eight months later was followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a separate peace between Russia and the Central Powers, with unprecedented annexations and reparations. Vladimir Lenin called for the conclusion of a separate peace with Germany. Nikolai Bukharin called for immediate revolutionary war. Lev Trotsky adhered to a middle position, which has entered history under the slogan "neither peace nor war." What is clear is that by forming a separate peace with Germany and her allies in order to stabilize Soviet rule in Russia, Lenin's government delivered a stab in the back to the German socialist revolution. As a result, by 1919, the Soviet government, headed by Lenin, had survived in Russia, and it became the global center of the Communist International movement. Join scholar and noted Russian historian Yuri Felshtinsky as he examines existing and newly discovered source material for a fresh look at this pivotal turning point in world history.

An unparalleled account of one of the most pivotal and hotly debated events in world history.