Here is the first attempt to present a comprehensive, but very readable view of the Russian Revolution, embracing not only the political and military struggle for power but the entire movement from 1899 to 1919 to revolutionize state and society. It focuses first on the gradual decay of tsarism from February 1899, culminating in the mutiny of the Petrograd garrison that brought down the monarchy in February 1917. The Bolshevik seizure of power in central Russia is then described, and the imposition of a one-party regime with its terror apparatus and centralised economic system.
An authoritative and cogent analysis of the reasons for the collapse of the old regime, it is also a powerfully analytical and exciting narrative written in lucid and elegant English. No single volume even begins to cater so adequately to those who want to discover what really happened to Russia.
