A Concise History of the Russian Revolution
Published on 27. April 2011
464 pages
978-0-307-78858-0 (ISBN)
Description
Richard Pipes's authoritative history of the "violent and disruptive acts" that created the first modern totalitarian regime portrays the crisis at the heart of the tsarist empire. Drawing on archival materials newly released in Russia, he chronicles the upheaval that began as a conservative revolt but was soon captured by messianic intellectuals intent not merely on reforming Russia but on remaking the world. He provides fresh accounts of the revolution's personalities and policies, crises, and cruelties, from the murder of the royal family through civil war, famine, and state terror. Brilliantly and persuasively, Pipes shows us why the resulting system owes less to the theories of Marx than it did to the character of Lenin and Russia's long authoritarian tradition. What ensues is a path-clearing work that is indispensable to any understanding of the events of the century.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Richard Pipes
A Concise History of the Russian Revolution
Book
11/1996
Vintage Books
€18.50
Article exhausted; check different version
Richard Pipes
A Concise History of the Russian Revolution
Book
10/1995
Knopf Publishing Group
€47.60
Article exhausted; check different version
Person
Richard Pipes was for many years a professor of history at Harvard University. He is the author of numerous books and essays on Russia, past and present, including Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime. In 1981-82 he served as President Reagan's National Security Council adviser on Soviet and East European affairs, and he has twice received a Guggenheim fellowship. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Marlborough, New Hampshire.
Content
- Intro
- About the Author
- Other Books by This Author
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part One: The Agony of the Old Regime
- Chapter I. Russia in 1900
- The Peasantry
- Official Russia
- The Intelligentsia
- Chapter II. The Constitutional Experiment
- The Revolution of 1905
- Stolypin
- Chapter III. Russia at War
- Her Prospects
- The First Year
- Catastrophe Looms
- Chapter IV. The February Revolution
- Part Two: The Bolsheviks Conquer Russia
- Chapter V. Lenin and the Origins of Bolshevism
- Chapter VI. The October Coup
- The Bolsheviks' Failed Bids for Power
- The Coup
- Chapter VII. Building the One-Party State
- Chapter VIII. The Revolution Internationalized
- Brest-Litovsk
- Foreign Involvement
- Chapter IX. War Communism
- The Creation of a Command Economy
- The War Against the Village
- Chapter X. Red Terror
- The Murder of the Imperial Family
- Mass Terror
- Part Three: Russia under the Bolshevik Regime
- Chapter XI. The Civil War
- The First Battles: 1918
- The Climax: 1919-1920
- Chapter XII. The New Empire
- Chapter XIII. Communism for Export
- Chapter XIV. Spiritual Life
- Culture as Propaganda
- War on Religion
- Chapter XV. Communism in Crisis
- NEP-The False Thermidor
- The Crisis of the New Regime
- Chapter XVI. Reflections on the Russian Revolution
- Glossary
- Chronology
- References
- Suggestions for Further Reading
