A People's History of the Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution may well be the most misunderstood event in modern history. In this fast-paced introduction Neil Faulkner debunks the myths that continue to shroud it showing how a mass movement of millions organised in democratic assemblies mobilised for militant action and destroyed a regime of landlords profiteers and warmongers. Faulkner rejects caricatures of Lenin and the Bolsheviks as authoritarian conspirators 'democratic-centralists' or the progenitors of Stalinist dictatorship; though short-lived the Revolution of October 1917 was an explosion of democracy and creativity. Crushed by bloody counter-revolution its socialist vision was ultimately displaced by a monstrous form of bureaucratic state-capitalism. Laced with first-hand testimony this history rescues the democratic essence of the revolution from its detractors and deniers offering a perfect primer for the modern reader. Published in partnership with the Left Book Club.