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The Russian Revolution

A New History

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The Russian Revolution

By: Sean McMeekin
Narrated by: Pete Larkin
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Summary

From an award-winning scholar, this definitive history reveals the tensions and transformations of the Russian Revolution.

“McMeekin writes muscular history. His Russian Revolution grips the reader.” —Niall Ferguson

In The Russian Revolution, acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin traces the events which ended Romanov rule, ushered the Bolskeviks into power, and introduced communism to the world. Between 1917 and 1922, Russia underwent a complete and irreversible transformation. Taking advantage of the collapse of the Tsarist regime in the middle of World War I, the Bolsheviks staged a hostile takeover of the Russian Imperial Army, promoting mutinies and mass desertions of men in order to fulfill Lenin’s program of turning the “imperialist war” into civil war. By the time the Bolsheviks had snuffed out the last resistance five years later, over twenty million people had died, and the Russian economy had collapsed so completely that communism had to be temporarily abandoned.

The first comprehensive history of these momentous events in over two decades, The Russian Revolution combines cutting-edge scholarship and a fast-paced narrative to shed new light on one of the most significant turning points of the twentieth century.

20th Century Military Modern Russia Imperialism War Russian Revolution Fiction

Critic Reviews

“Well written, with new details from archival research used for vivid descriptions of key events.”—New York Times Book Review
“A superb and eye-opening account of this important chapter in 20th century history that will be indispensable reading for those anxious to learn more about this seminal event and the aftershocks that followed .... The Russian Revolution is a carefully researched, well-written assessment of the complex and confusing events that did so much to shape the last century. McMeekin is a reliable guide to a complex story and the book moves seamlessly and clearly across a vast landscape of people and events.”—Christian Science Monitor
“A powerful revisionist history... Sean McMeekin is a gifted writer with historical talents equal to the challenge of helping the reader to follow the events of the revolution and appreciate their terrible significance ... And in a world menaced by new totalitarians, by political actors prepared to use conflict as a path to power, by states ready to use their money to suborn democracy elsewhere and by liberals often paralysed by infighting rather than united by principle, McMeekin’s magisterial study repays careful reading.”—Times (UK)
“McMeekin succeeds in offering a fresh take through inclusivity of contributing events ... A well-written and rewarding read on the Russian Revolution’s lasting historical import.”—Library Journal
“With strong scholarly foundations and a riveting narrative, this book provides a broad survey of this tumultuous and fateful social transformation ... This fluid work offers an overview of the revolution’s wartime context.”—Publishers Weekly
“A fresh history of the revolution ... McMeekin refreshingly doesn’t muddy the waters with too many characters, but he is thorough in his treatment, which is that much more interesting due to the wealth of information released following the downfall of the Soviet Union ... McMeekin effectively shows how easily one man could undermine the foundations of a nation, and he makes the revolution comprehensible as he exposes the deviousness of its leader.”—Kirkus Reviews
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