by Neil Faulkner

Published by Pluto Press in Jan 2017 304 pages £12.99

A People’s History of the Russian Revolution, written by one of the finest historians on the left, is a vital contribution to the debate over the legacy of the Revolution and an essential defence of the revolutionary experience’ – John Newsinger, author of The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the British Empire.

‘Vivid and readable … A valuable perspective on a world-shaking event’ – Karen Shook, Times Higher Education

‘Lively, sometimes contentious, and very readable’ – Manchester Review of Books

‘A very important contribution … Very well-written [and] readable’ – International Journal of Russian Studies

Overview

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

This book can be purchased from Pluto Press here.