Ten Big Questions About the Russian Revolution: An Introduction

Was Russia's February Revolution of 1917 spontaneous? Did Lenin 'make' the October Revolution? A century after 1917, is the Russian Revolution 'dead'? These are just a few of the key questions that Michael C. Hickey uses to expertly unpick the complexities and ambiguities of the revolutionary period in Russia.

In Ten Big Questions about the Russian Revolution, each chronologically arranged chapter is framed around a 'big question' related to popular narratives, ideal for class discussion and exam revision. The resulting book emphasizes issues of politics, ideology, and state power, while attention is always paid to broader aspects of social and cultural history. While the events of 1917 are firmly at the heart of the text, Hickey is careful to tease out aspects of continuity and change, with coverage of the Russian empire which came before and the Stalinist years which eventually followed. In addition, a well-judged balance of international, imperial, national, and local contexts is provided, enabling a deeper understanding of this seminal event in world history from a wide variety of perspectives.