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Causes and Consequences of the Russian Revolution
Causes and Consequences of the Russian Revolution
Russian revolution short note
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This essay asks for the comparison of the three historical monographs, which offer different interpretations of the same or related topic. This essay will focus on writings about the Russian Revolution (1818-1919) particularly concentrating on the October Revolution in 1917 and the leadership of Vladimir Lenin during this period. The goal of this essay is to examine how three historians, from three separate schools of thought, have interpreted these events and how their particular political views, evidence and personal experiences have influenced these interpretations. This will be achieved by analysing the works of Richard Pipes; a western liberal-conservative, Dmitri Volkogonov; a soviet-revisionist and John Reed; a socialist. A historian’s interpretation of events relies heavily on not just the school of thought that they belong to but also their political leanings, nationality, religion, gender and the social context within which the book was written (i.e. what was happening politically or socially at the time of publication). The first historian this essay deals with is Richard Pipes, a Polish-American historian who is considered one of the more prolific writers on the Russian Revolution. His book The Russian Revolution is strongly influenced by Pipes’ liberal political views. Studying and living in America he developed a largely anti-communist view that was shared by most western thinkers during the cold war period. Pipe’s published his book in 1990, during the unravelling of the USSR. Pipes used a wide range of sources to construct his monograph, including recounts from people who lived through or led the revolution, soviet historians views and documents from American archives. However thorough his research Pipes’ evide... ... middle of paper ... ...le within history. Works Cited Acton, Edward, and William Rosenberg. Critical Companion to the Russian Revolution, 1914-1921. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1997 Ayaub, Nina. “John Reed and the Writing of the Revolution”. The Chronicle of Higher Education 49, no. 24 (2003): 17 “Historian Dmitri Volkogonov.” Alpha History. 2012. http://alphahistory.com/russianrevolution/historian-dmitri-volkogonov/ Koenker, Diane. “The Russian Revolution by Richard Pipes”. The Journal of Modern History 65, no. 2 (1993): 432. Pipes, Richard. The Russian Revolution 1899-1919. London: Collins Harvill, 1990. Reed, John. Ten Days that Shook the World. England: Lawrence and Wishart, 1961 Volkogonov, Dmitri. Lenin A New Autobiography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994. Zinn, Howard. Howard Zinn on History. Edited by Staughton Lynd. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001.