Table of Contents
Foreword xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Backwards Russia 5
The Tsar 6
The Romanovs 7
Farming Society 9
A country of peasants 9
Late industrialization 13
Problems for Nicholas 14
The Japanese embarrassment 15
The revolution of 1905 17
Chapter 2 The Great War 23
Why War? 25
Alliances 26
War and Politics 28
Russia at war 29
Nicholas the military commander 32
The War for Ordinary Russians 35
Things start going downhill 36
It's the tsar's fault! 40
Chapter 3 Revolutionary Ideas 43
Marxism in Russia 44
Marx's ideas 45
Marxism in Russia 47
Ideas and the Russian Government 50
Politics under the tsar 51
Chapter 4 The Uprising 56
Riots in Petrograd 56
From strike to uprising 57
Collapse of the Tsar 61
Nicholas returns 62
Who's in charge now? 63
Chapter 5 The In-Between Time 67
Conflict for the Provisional Government 68
The Provisional Government vs. the Soviet 68
What about the war? 72
Lenin Returns 74
The German train 75
The July Days 77
The unrest 77
Consequences of the July Days 79
The Kornilov Affair 81
The illusion of stability 81
Chapter 6 The Second Uprising 89
Elections and Rebellions 90
Bolshevik promises 91
The Second Revolution 94
The Bolshevik takeover 95
The early Bolshevik government 99
Chapter 7 Bolshevik Russia 105
No More War 105
Discussions with Germany 106
Economic Problems 110
The struggle to produce 111
War Communism 113
Chapter 8 Civil War 117
Who is Fighting Who? 120
Reds vs. Whites 120
Foreign Intervention 123
The fight against communism 124
The Course of War 127
Violence and terror 127
White losses 132
Chapter 9 Making the Soviet Union 135
The New Economic Policy 135
The Kronstadt Rebellion 136
Return to capitalism 138
Life After Lenin 140
Meet Josef Stalin 140
The struggle for power 142
The Early Stalin Days 144
The five-year plans 145
Stalin's political terror 148
Chapter 10 The Story Since 151
Scary Communism 151
Reacting to the Russian Revolution 152
The Second World War 153
The Cold War 156
The curtain and beyond 156
After Stalin 158
The End of Communism 160
Glasnost and Perestroika 162
Conclusion 165
Author's Note 167
Timeline 169
Bibliography 177
Glossary 181
Index 193
About the Author 196
