The Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the face of the Russian empire, polit
ically, 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 acc
ount of the history of the Russian empire, from the last years of the nineteenth
century, through the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 and the establ
ishment of the Bolshevik regime, to the end of the 1920s, when Stalin simultaneo
usly unleashed violent collectivization of agriculture and crash industrializati
on upon Russian society. Drawing on recent archivally-based scholarship, Russia
in Revolution pays particular attention to the varying impact of the Revolution
on the various groups that made up society: peasants, workers, non-Russian natio
nalities, the army, women and the family, young people, and the Church.
