The soviet union revolution and transformation

Good overview dont be a Kerensky 1780743874 I was working on a history assignment about the Russian revolution when I first bought this book I thought it would be a good idea to get a small book that is meant to be an easy guide for beginners not that it was that easy I was confused sometimes and had to research some issues terms before moving on Obviously this was my first time reading a book about the Russian revolution so I still have a long way The book does provide some interesting details that I never knew when I was doing research for my history assignment so I thought that was cool It was an overall good book very short and concise Some of the facts could have been presented differently but that wasn t a huge problem I gave this book four stars because I thought it did a good job on introducing me to the basic events of the Russian revolution I am certain that I will be re reading this book sometime in the future to re visit the issues that I couldn t grasp the first time reading it 1780743874 Concise description of the events some interesting facts little known to those who learned history from the books at schools of the former Soviet Union The analysis of the events is limited and superficial 1780743874 Abraham Ascher is Distinguished emeritus Professor of History at the Graduate School of the city University of New York A highly respected scholar he is the recipient of numerous awards and the author of seven books and over thirty articles. The bolshevik revolution book 1917 the year a series of rebellions toppled three centuries of autocratic rule and placed a group of political radicals in charge of a world power Here suddenly was the first modern socialist state a kingdom bright that any heaven had to offer But the dream was short lived bringing in its wake seventy years of conflict and instability that nearly ended in nuclear war How could such a revolution take place and what caused it to go so very wrong Presenting a uniquely long view of events Abraham Ascher takes readers from the seeds of revolution in the 1880s right through to Stalin s state terror and the power of the communist legacy in Russia today Original and shrewd Ascher s analysis offers an unparalled introduction to this watershed period in world history The Russian Revolution A Beginner s Guide Beginner s Guides Keep in mind this book is meant to be a beginner s guide That was the goal of the author and in my opinion Ascher succeeded An complete in depth examination of the Russian Revolution it is not. The bolshevik revolution november As an excellent summary that allows a novice interested in learning about this seminal historical even a good grounding in the topic this book fills the bill 1780743874 Useful in giving a summary of Russian revolution for a levels 1780743874 Revolution AgainReview of the Oneworld Publications paperback March 6 2014 I read this Beginner s Guide as part of my continuing research into the 1905 Revolution in Tsarist Russia which in hindsight has been seen by many as a precursor to the eventual 1917 Revolution I m doing this mainly for the events in the Baltic Provinces Estland Livland Kurland which became the independent countries of Estonia and Latvia after the disintegration of the Tsarist Empire Lithuania the 3rd Baltic country was associated with the then Russian territory of greater Poland before its independence. The bolshevik revolution book This was quite an excellent overview of the 1917 events and even the brief summary of 1905 was useful Ascher does seem to have some sort of curious bias against the Estonians though He completely excludes Estonia from his listing of the various nationalist movements which were part of the causes of the overall uprisings against Tsarist and Russian rule Finally in some regions most notably Finland Ukraine Lithuania Latvia Transcaucasia and Poland national movements demanded autonomy or complete separation from the empire. The bolshevik revolution november Trivia and LinksOne interesting bit of trivia to me was that the origin of the two factions which split the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party into Bolsheviks Russian Majority and Mensheviks Russian Minority was a vote at a Party Congress in 1903 The Bolsheviks later became known as the Communist Party of Soviet Union. The soviet union revolution and transformation Not from this book but something I came across separately was that the Estonian Bolshevik takeover in Tallinn in October 1917 led by Jaan Anvelt aka the writer Eessaare Aadu took place on October 23 1917 2 days before the Russian Bolshevik takeover in Petrograd formerly St Petersburg the original Germanic name was changed due to the war against Germany 1914 1918 on October 25 1917 dates are according to the Julian Calendar which was 13 days later in the rest of the world which had adopted the Gregorian Calendar 1780743874 This book was excellent compelling history of the struggle against Tsarism by all the political forces But there were early signs it was going to go awry when it talked about Lenin s anti democratic tendency coming out in the 1902 debate over membership I think Ascher needs to closely read Lars T Lih s What Is To Be Done In Context the need for professional revolutionaries was actually agreed to by all sides of the debate and the question was to how to organise the party into democratic accountable structures. The soviet union revolution and transformation Then when we get to 1917 and the October revolution Ascher completely loses the plot He manages to claim that the Bolsheviks were misguided for assuming class revolution would break out in other countries of western Europe and that the working class was relatively content with capitalism in those countries without mentioning the fact that as expected class revolution broke out in Germany in 1918 to end the great war The story of the civil war and of Stalin s rise to power equally fit the bourgeois narratives with selective reference to the actual historical record Dissapointing finish to what was a compelling book until that point 1780743874 2. The bolshevik revolution book Despite its appearance of historical veracity this photograph is from a 1920 reenactment of the Storming of the Tsar s Winter Palace in Petrograd in 1917 Image sourced from Wikipedia: The bolshevik revolution november Despite its rather fearsome association with the later Soviet Union the word soviet is Russian for council.75 5 1780743874