Eric Hobsbawm: The Age of Extremes.

Tsarism during the period after the 1905 revolution and the March revolution of 1917 faced a ‘wave of social discontent’ (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 57). This was no surprise, as there was many who during that period had thought that there was a ‘straight road [to] a socialist future’ (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 57). However many saw that there was not the means to happen in Russia at the time. Hobsbawm plants the idea of a Bourgeoisies revolution and the class struggles, combined with Karl Marx’s ideas about the impending revolutions. Centralised in Europe was the ideas of socialism and revolution. Hobsbawm reflects the ideas of the time, that they were ‘helpless’ by 1914 and by 1916 the majority followed. This was just the popular opinion of the time of the Russian public. Although he jumps between times, starting with the October revolution then jumping to the ‘overthrow(ing) of Tsarism’ (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 57) then back to the post October revolution. This does not affect the readability of the section. It gives a well-rounded description of the period to form a good base for Part II.

Part II of this chapter mainly focuses on how the Bolsheviks moved forward, obtained and revolutionised the way in which the world was in the times of revolution. For some the times of revolution was a time of grave concern, however the Bolsheviks had not this issue. As proven by Hobsbawm, stating that the Bolsheviks ‘grew from a small troop of a few thousand in March 1917 to a quarter of a million members by the early summer of that year’ (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 61). The way they thrived in such a time was that they were not only efficient at recognising what the people wanted, but they were convincing in how they would give it to them, this is a main reason tha...

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...vent and conclude how ‘the history of the Short Twentieth Century cannot be understood without the Russian revolution and its direct and indirect effects’. (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 84) To some the revolution may not seem as important, to Hobsbawm it is a pivotal moment in the history, as it ‘changed the world… in the way that [no one] expected. (Hobsbawm, 1995, p. 83)

Hobsbawm presents, a chapter which recounts the moment in history, he gives a different perspective to other historian’s accounts of the time. He gives some ideas which many had not thought of, which adds to the depth of the chapters, but he also goes against some other accounts slightly, this could just be down to his own view of the time. However, this does not affect the book in a negative way, they lead to a deeper understanding of some central issues into how the world has come to be how it is today.