This study examines one of the key events in history, the Russian Revolution. Since the late Gorbachev period, a wealth of new material has become available to historians that has triggered intense scholarly debate on the nature of revolution. This timely new book takes account of the new scholarship, including - for example - the role of Lenin. It is argued that the intial flexibility of Lenin and the Bolshevik party allowed them to take power, but that the conduct of both changed considerably once they were obliged to take steps to maintain their authority. This book charts the Febuary Revolution, the October Revolution, the Civil War and the main individuals involved, giving a remarkable degree of clarity to the tumultuous events in Russia whose consequences the world lived with for the rest of the twentieth century.

The Russian Revolution and Civil War in the years 1917 to 1921 is one of the most widely studied periods in history. It is also somewhat inevitably one that has generated a huge flow of literature in the decades that have passed since the events themselves. However, until now, historians of the revolution have had no dedicated bibliography of the period and little claim to bibliographical control over the literature. The Russian Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921offers for the first time a comprehensive bibliographical guide to this crucial and fascinating period of history. The Bibliography focuses on the key years of 1917 to 1921, starting with the February Revolution of 1917 and concluding with the 10th Party Congress of March 1921, and covers all the key events of the intervening years. As such it identifies these crucial years as something more than simply the creation of a communist state.

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. In this classic work, the author incorporates data from archives thatwere 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. Impeccable in its scholarship and objectivity, the book tells a gripping story of a Marxist revolution that was intended to transform the world, visited enormous suffering on the Russian people, and, like the French Revolution before it, ended up by devouring its own children. In a concludingsection that will be of great interest to scholars in the field as well as the general reader, the author treats the Stalinist Great Purges as the last act of the drama of the Russian Revolution.