The Russian Revolution (OPUS) Book

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Russia was one of the great powers of Europe. But it was a great power that was universally regarded as backward by comparison with Britain, Germany, and France. As Russia moved from under the weight of World War I, Western influences began to settle upon this vast empire, leading the way to the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution. Now in a new edition, this provocative and eminently readable work looks at the many upheavals of this long and often devastating period as successive stages in a single process--the Russian Revolution. Focusing on the Russian Revolution in its widest sense, Fitzpatrick covers not only the events of 1917 and what preceded them, but the nature of the social transformation brought about by the Bolsheviks after they took power. Making use of a huge amount of previously secret information in Soviet archives and unpublished memoirs, this detailed chronology recounts each monumental event from the February and October Revolutions of 1917 and the Civil War of 1918-1920, through the New Economic Policy of 1921 and the 1929 First Five-Year Plan, to Stalin's "revolution from above" at the end of the 1920s and the Great Purge of the late 1930s. Lucid and concise, this classic study makes comprehendible the complex events of the revolution.Read More