The Russian Revolution: A Very Short Introduction - Softcover

Smith, S. A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192853953 ISBN 13: 9780192853950

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2002

Synopsis

This Very Short Introduction provides an analytical narrative of the main events and developments in Soviet Russia between 1917 and 1936. It examines the impact of the revolution on society as a whole--on different classes, ethnic groups, the army, men and women, youth. Its central concern is to understand how one structure of domination was replaced by another. The book registers the primacy of politics, but situates political developments firmly in the context of massive economic, social, and cultural change. Since the fall of Communism there has been much reflection on the significance of the Russian Revolution. The book rejects the currently influential, liberal interpretation of the revolution in favour of one that sees it as rooted in the contradictions of a backward society which sought modernization and enlightenment and ended in political tyranny.

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About this title

About the Author

Stephen Smith is Professor of History at the University of Essex. He works on the social history of the Russian and Chinese revoltuions and is author of Red Petrograd: Revolution in the Factories, 1917-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 1983), and A Road is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920-27 (Curzon Press, 2000).

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0192853953
• ISBN 13: 9780192853950
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192