A Concise History of the Russian Revolution

The most readable, useful, and illuminating chronicle of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. In *A Concise History of the Russian Revolution*, renowned historian Richard Pipes argues that the October Revolution of 1917 was actually a coup d'état, a seizure of power by a group with popular support but without actual public involvement. For Pipes, Bolshevism was not a vision of the future, but rather a revival of an authoritarian past. Analyzing the period immediately before and after the Revolution, the book depicts the assassination of the imperial family, the Soviet policy of suppressing ethnicities and nationalities, and the fight against religion. The product of years of research, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution reviews the participation of the revolution's main figures and portrays Lenin as a fanatic, authoritarian, and intolerant figure who ordered the construction of concentration camps as early as 1918. Pipes also shows how Lenin's policies paved the way for the terror of the Stalinist era. A Concise History of the Russian Revolution follows the Revolution's policies, crises, and cruelties, from the assassination of the Romanovs to state-sponsored terror, and analyzes the coexistence of Marxist theory and Russia's long authoritarian tradition.