Robert Weinberg examines the tumultuous events of the 1905 Revolution in Odessa, the fourth-largest city in the Russian Empire at the turn of the twentieth century, and explores why workers in Odessa were the driving force in the near-toppling of autocratic rule. Weinberg offers a compelling analysis of labor's militancy and politicization in 1905 and provides insights into the social dynamics of labor activism in late Imperial Russia. He pays close attention to how the intersection of national developments, local events, and the workers' daily experiences prompted Odessa workers to claim rights of citizenship, challenge authority, and assert greater control over their working lives. The book also sheds light on the notorious Jewish Question in tsarist Russia and the impact of ethnic conflict on the events of 1905. Jews constituted one-third of Odessa's population, and the bloody October pogrom that left hundreds dead reveals how ethno-religious tensions affected the labor movement and influenced the outcome of the revolution in Odessa. By demonstrating the intricate relationship among labor unrest, politics, and anti-Semitism, The Revolution of 1905 in Odessa enriches our understanding of the multifaceted dimensions of revolution in the Russian Empire.

The first of two volumes, this is the most comprehensive account of the Revolution of 1905—a decisive turning point in modern Russian history—to appear in any Western language in a generation.

Imperial Odessa: Peoples, Spaces, Identities is a book about a cosmopolitan city written by a cosmopolitan scholar with a literary flair. Evrydiki Sifneos conceives Odessa as more of a fin-de siècle east Mediterranean port-metropolis than as a provincial port-city of the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century due to two of its principal characteristics: its function as a hub of international trade and travel, and the multi-ethnic character of its inhabitants. The book unfolds around two interpenetrating axes. The first one introduces a new "peripatetic" approach that discovers the space of the city; and the other, the one that has given it its dynamic, is the socio-economic transformations that germinated within the political changes.

The Encyclopedia of Political Revolutions is an important reference work that describes revolutionary events that have affected and often changed the course of history. Suitable for students and interested lay readers yet authoritative enough for scholars, its 200 articles by leading scholars from around the world provide quick answers to specific questions as well as in-depth treatment of events and trends accompanying revolutions. Includes descriptions of specific revolutions, important revolutionary figures, and major revolutionary themes such as communism and socialism, ideology, and nationalism. Illustrative material consists of photographs, detailed maps, and a timeline of revolutions.

The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions was written in 1906 by Polish-born revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. It brilliantly captures the fundamental lessons from the experience of mass workers' strikes and their role in the 1905 Russian Revolution. Luxemburg lived in a world in crisis - one characterised by the fast approach of the First World War - and in an era when revolutionary struggles and ideas broke out internationally. Now, over a century later, capitalism is lunging deeper into a crisis of mammoth economic, political, social and ecological proportions. The need for mass strikes that can spill over into revolution is now existential. In this short book, Luxemburg shows how strikes call into question the relationship between the working class and the employing class, how political and economic demands fuse in the course of such strikes, and how they can start to challenge the conservative approach of the trade union leaders. Her book is as relevant as ever in hel

A definitive new history of Russia from early Rus' to the collapse of the Soviet Union

New Russia begins in 1905-07. A revolution which failed was also a moment of truth. By proceeding in a way unexpected by supporters and adversaries alike it offered a dramatic corrective to their understanding of Russia. In what followed Russian history was to be dominated by the transforming efforts of monarchists who learnt that only 'revolution from above' could save their tsardom and by Marxists who, under the impact of revolution which failed, looked anew at Russia and their Marxism. On the opposing sides of the political scale, Stolypin and Lenin came to share a new image of Russia recognisable today as one of a 'developing society', and to act upon that. While Russia began a new century with a revolution, it is equally true that a new century in world history began with the Russian revolution of 1905-07. Since then a new type of society and of revolution have been evident throughout the world. Most of the theoretical tools to grasp those environments and changes were first set in Russia of the period described. The book begins with the forces and elements which came together in the 1905-07 revolution. It then presents and analyses the urban struggle, the still little known peasant war and the relations between those two confrontations. It proceeds to the conclusions drawn from the revolution by the different social classes, parties and leaders and the way this has shaped Russia's future and consequently of the world today, defining also economics and agrarian reforms, developmentism and communism, liberation struggles and anti-insurgencies.