Russian Revolution

This short and updated introduction by one of Europe's leading
specialists in Russian and Soviet history presents a broad survey
combined with a penetrating analysis of the key issues of the Russian
Revolution, such as the nature of pre-Revolutionary society and
politics, the many links between war and revolution (e.g., the effects
of the war on the Bolshevik theory of revolution), the possibilities
open to the Provisional Government, political alternatives to
Bolshevism, and the place of the Revolution in contemporary intellectual
debate in the West. The particular originality of this volume lies in
the fact that the author also examines the way in which these issues
were viewed both at the time and later. He looks at contemorary (1917)
assumptions, at the validity of questions traditionally asked about the
Revolution, and concerns himself with the degree of hindsight and
ideological basis contained both in the questions themselves and in the
answers usually given to them. The author's knowledge of works in
Russian as well as in German, English and French add to the
indispensability of this book.