The Russian Revolution, 1905-1921

by Mark D. Steinberg

The Russian Revolution, 1905-1921 is a new history of Russia's revolutionary era as a story of experience-of people making sense of history as it unfolded in their own lives and as they took part in making history themselves. The major events, trends, and explanations, reaching from Bloody Sunday in 1905 to the final shots of the civil war in 1921, are viewed through the doubled perspective of the professional historian looking backward and the contemporary journalist reporting and interpreting history as it happened. The volume then turns toward particular places and people: city streets, peasant villages, the margins of empire (Central Asia, Ukraine, the Jewish Pale), women and men, workers and intellectuals, artists and activists, utopian visionaries, and discontents of all kinds. We spend time with the famous (Vladimir Lenin, Lev Trotsky, Alexandra Kollontai, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Isaac Babel) and with those whose names we don't even know. Key themes include difference and inequality (social, economic, gendered, ethnic), power and resistance, violence, and ideas about justice and freedom. Written especially for students and general readers, this history relies extensively on contemporary texts and voices in order to bring the past and its meanings to life. This is a history about dramatic and uncertain times and especially about the interpretations, values, emotions, desires, and disappointments that made history matter to those who lived it

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia, Politics, Russian Revolution, Soviet History

400 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 2017

About the author

A specialist on the cultural, intellectual, and social history of Russia and the Soviet Union in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Mark D. Steinberg is professor of history at the University of Illinois.

Reviews

[Sendiri Jaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very useful viewpoint of this era in Russian history, Steinberg tells the story as it happened "on the street," that is, what the people were reading in the newspapers, flyers, posters, books, and so on, instead of being a series of biographies of the big names (Lenin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kerensky, etc.) or a ticking off of the major events, Steinberg gives us what the ordinary Russian might have heard or read, all carefully footnoted with a practical bibliography that refers to specialist studies on each period within the period.

There's a sadness after reading this book. We see that Russia is in essence still old Russia, a Putin is no different in essence from a Nicholas II, just as the current head of China is no different from the old emperors. Making revolution is obviously a far easier task than keeping revolution, and rulers of these nations have as much fear of the people as ever.

[Sasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Книга является обзором общественных настроений, которые были отмечены в газетах, письмах, заявлениях и прочих документах указанного периода.
Читается легко, особенно понравилось, что автор обратил внимание на роль, значение и просто жизнь женщин, поскольку эта информация практически не отражена в школьных и университетских учебниках истории на постсоветском пространстве.
Рекомендация читателям: прежде, чем читать, выпишите на лист "дата - событие", потому что задача этой книги не выстроить у вас в голове четкую историческую последовательность событий, а лишь дополнить ее комментариями.

[Ed Penington · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful, non-judgemental and wide ranging look at the world and individuals that shaped the Russian Revolution. Can't recommend it highly enough.