The Russian Revolution

A concise history of the Russian Revolution in the broadest sense: not only the upheavals of 1917 but the social transformation the Bolsheviks carried out after taking power. Sheila Fitzpatrick traces the collapse of the tsarist order through the February and October Revolutions, the Civil War of 1918-1920, the New Economic Policy of the 1920s, Stalin's "revolution from above," and the Five-Year Plans and purges that followed, drawing on Soviet archival material and memoirs. First published in 1982 and revised in later editions, it remains a standard short introduction to the period for students and general readers.