An accessible account of a dramatic era in Russian history
1917 saw one of the most dramatic revolutions in world history when the workers of Russia united to throw out their tsar and aristocracy, and formed the first communist state. A century later, this book reflects on the reasons for this revolution, key people, events and its legacy. Illustrated with archive photography, posters and artifacts, and supported by eyewitness accounts, this book explores Russia's century of upheaval. It considers how change affected not only people such as Lenin, Stalin and Tsar Nicholas II, but also the ordinary Russians. The century was also dramatic in terms of world politics and this book examines all of this change within the context of the First World War, the Second Word War, the Civil War between the Reds and the Whites and the Cold War. It explores Perestroika and Glasnost and how 21st-century Russia emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Heather Maisner carefully analyses the rise and fall of Soviet Union, with excellent, succinct explanations of the various events. This is a handsome, well-produced book (with stimulating photographs, paintings and posters) and can be highly commended.
