A People’s History of the Russian Revolution

An alternative, narrative history of the Russian Revolution published in its centenary

The Russian Revolution may well be the most misunderstood event in modern history. In this fast-paced introduction, Neil Faulkner debunks the myths that continue to shroud it, showing how a mass movement of millions, organised in democratic assemblies, mobilised for militant action and destroyed a regime of landlords, profiteers and warmongers.

Faulkner rejects caricatures of Lenin and the Bolsheviks as authoritarian conspirators, 'democratic-centralists' or the progenitors of Stalinist dictatorship; though short-lived, the Revolution of October 1917 was an explosion of democracy and creativity. Crushed by bloody counter-revolution, its socialist vision was ultimately displaced by a monstrous form of bureaucratic state-capitalism.

Laced with first-hand testimony, this history rescues the democratic essence of the revolution from its detractors and deniers, offering a perfect primer for the modern reader.

Published in partnership with the Left Book Club.

Series Preface
Acknowledgements
Dates, Names, Prices and Wages
Maps
Introduction
Part I: The Spark, 1825-1916
1. The Regime
2. The Revolutionaries
3. Lenin and the Bolsheviks
4. The Great War
Part II: The Tempest, 1917
5. The February Revolution
6. Dual Power
7. Counter-Revolution
8. The October Days
Part III: The Darkness, 1918-1938
9. World Revolution?
10. The Revolution Besieged
11. Stalinism
Epilogue: A Century of War and Revolution
Timeline
Bibliography
Index