Russia in Revolution

An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928

S. A. Smith

The story of the Russian Revolution — a century since 1917
An epochal event that transformed the Russian empire and profoundly affected the course of world history in the twentieth century
A panoramic account from the last years of the nineteenth century, through revolution and civil war, to the brutal collectivization and industrialization of the late 1920s
Reflects on the larger significance of 1917 for the history of the twentieth century and what it might mean for us today

Russia in Revolution

An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928

S. A. Smith

Description

The Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the face of the Russian empire, politically, economically, socially, and culturally, and also profoundly affected the course of world history for the rest of the twentieth century. Now, to mark the centenary of this epochal event, historian Steve Smith presents a panoramic account of the history of the Russian empire, from the last years of the nineteenth century to the end of the 1920s when Stalin unleashed violent collectivization of agriculture and crash industrialization upon Russian society.

Drawing on recent archival scholarship, Russia in Revolution pays particular attention to the varying impact of the Revolution on different social groups including peasants, workers, non-Russian nationals, the army, women, young people, and the Church. The book provides a fresh approach toward the big, perennial questions about the Revolution and its consequences. Why did the tsarist government's attempt to implement political reform after the 1905 Revolution fail? Why did the First World War bring about the collapse of the tsarist system? Why did the attempt to create a democratic system after the February Revolution of 1917 never get off the ground? Why did the Bolsheviks succeeded in seizing power? Why did Stalin come out on top in the power struggle inside the Bolshevik party after Lenin's death in 1924?

A final chapter reflects on the larger significance of 1917 for the history of the twentieth century and, for all its terrible flaws, what the promise of the Revolution might mean for us today.

Russia in Revolution

An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928

S. A. Smith

Russia in Revolution

An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928

S. A. Smith

Author Information

S. A. Smith is a historian of modern Russia and China, who was a graduate student at both Moscow State University and at Peking University. He is the author of many books and articles on the Russian and Chinese revolutions, including Red Petrograd: Revolution in the Factories, 1917-18 (CUP, 1983) and Revolution and the People in Russia and China: A Comparative History (CUP, 2008), and is editor of The Oxford Handbook of the History of Communism (OUP, 2014). He taught for many years at the University of Essex, where he is an emeritus professor, and then at the European University Institute in Florence, before being elected to a senior research fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, in 2012.

Russia in Revolution

An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928

S. A. Smith

Reviews and Awards

"Saturated with statistics and comparisons with the Chinese experience, Smith's volume is an excellent summary of the deep cultural and socio-economic causes and continuities of the revolutions of 1917." -- Anton Fedyashin, European History Quarterly, Vol. 47

"Smith's book, intelligent and clearly written, asks large questions. How did it happen? What was it and why study it now on its 100th anniversary?"--Daniel Orlovsky, Slavic Review

"Smith provide[s] some rich illustration and detailed analysis of this process of social change and its impact on society."--James Eaden, International Socialism

"It is one of Russia in Revolution's merits that the author lays out the scope of contending interpretations and leaves it to his readers to make up their own minds."--Robert Service, Times Literary Supplement

"I can think of no better overview of the period written in recent years....No one in Britain is better equipped to write about 1917 than Robert Service and Stephen Smith. Both men have devoted most of their scholarly lives to studying the revolution. They bring to their current works not just vast knowledge but also a deep commitment to balanced judgment, intellectual rigour and honesty, and accessible writing."--Dominic Lieven, Financial Times

"A challenging revisionist history reassessing the ongoing significance of the Russian Revolution Smith's work will be declared a subject standard, sure to stand out for its stellar research."--Library Journal

"A master historian of the Russian Revolution, S.A. Smith has wrestled the events and personalities, policies and mass politics of the years 1890 to 1928 into a coherent and compelling story of the entrance of ordinary people onto the stage of history and the brutal, violent descent of Russia into dictatorship. Smith explains better than anyone else how a revolution marked by radical democracy and hope for social justice sacrificed many of its ideals to win and hold power and inspire an international movement against capitalism and imperialism."--Ronald Grigor Suny, Distinguished University Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan

"Readers looking for an introduction to the deep roots of the revolution, its proximate causes and aftermath are well served by S.A. Smith's Russia in Revolution. Smith looks at the social and political contexts, especially the failure of an earlier revolution in 1905, which led to political stagnation and crackdowns."--Korea Herald

"A broader, contextual understanding of the revolution, from its causes to its legacy, can be gleaned from the pages of Smith's Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928. The Oxford historian, whose intended audience is readers coming new to the subject, delivers a clear, thorough, approachable primer. The book's illuminating coverage of life in Russia during the early 1920s details the brief but influential flourishing of artistic experimentation that fostered such enduring figures as filmmakers Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov, painters Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky, theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold, poet Anna Akhmatova and many others."--The Globe and Mail

"Smith is the most sympathetic to emancipatory politics, and it offers the most persuasive explanation of the Russian Revolution's origins and terrible failures. Smith's approach to history, with an emphasis on long-term factors and the experience of ordinary people, also feels the most relevant to our own historical moment. As in the early 20th century, we are living in an age in which mass movements and popular fury have a new currency."--The Nation

"It is the most expansive history of the 1917 revolution available. Smith traces the revolution in detail, as well as its prelude and aftermath. Every step of the way, he draws in the many different elements of the period not just the political tumult but also the changing character of Russian society, economic developments, cultural trends, and the impact of a turbulent international context. Throughout, Smith fairly and intelligently arbitrates the great debates among historians over how to interpret the revolution. Were readers to look for one book to read on the subject, this should be it."--Foreign Affairs

"sober, well-researched and comprehensive history."--London Review of Books