Sheila Fitzpatrick's The Russian Revolution

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When first learning about the Russian Revolution, one of the most controversial and complex political transitionary periods in modern history, one may be completely overwhelmed with the wealth of information about the period that may be found, both in books and online. In her seminal short novel, The Russian Revolution, noted Russian historian Sheila Fitzpatrick provides the reader with a comprehensive history of the subject, ushering the reader back in time to pre-Soviet Russia, where the recently uprooting of the feudal system would eventually lead to the rise of Lenin . Fitzpatrick provides a thoughtful analysis of the pre-revolutionary conditions in Russia, which leads into her comparisons of the period against her “perfect” model of the typical …show more content…

Her timeline extends all the way from the runup to the infamous February and October revolutions, through the New Economic Plan, and Stalin’s collectivization efforts, in which he collectivized the peasant agriculture and put an end to private landownership . She then tackles the so-called “Thermidorian” episode of the Russian Revolution, akin to a period which she asserts lead to the fall of the Jacobins after their Reign of Terror, and finally ending with the rise of Stalin and the enactment of his Great Purges . She explains to the readers the main concepts of the greater movement in a straightforward manner, primarily through the use of examples and her chronological presentation of ideas. All in all, The Russian Revolution presents us with a thorough account of the time period with some very interesting perspectives, and should be considered one of the most formative works on the subject to this

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