The Russian Revolution

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the events leading up to and following the Russian Revolution in 1917. The paper specifically discusses whether the Russian Revolution changed Russian society on fundamental levels. It concludes that it is an excellent example of a nation that suffered through the blood and destruction of revolution, and yet, emerged unchanged on fundamental levels. The paper describes why this is the case.

From the Paper:

"Russia is an excellent example of a nation that suffered through the blood and destruction of revolution, and yet, emerged unchanged on fundamental levels. The basic principles of Russian autocracy remained self-evident under communist rulers like Stalin. Tsarist society, with its largely immobile masses, held in thrall by the power of the state, continued to exist in the form of the voiceless workers of Communist times. The collectivized economy, and top down economic control of the Imperial period had its counterpart in the collective farms and five-year-plans of the Soviet communist party dictators. Culture too, conformed to the same patterns of state-endorsed propaganda and accepted forms, set against the rebellion of individuals. Crane Brinton's theory on Revolution applies to Russia as it applies to so many other places and times, showing as it does, the difficulties, and near-impossibilities of completely transforming a nation in a short period of time."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bonnell, Victorio E. "12 The Iconography of the Worker in Soviet Political Art." Making Workers Soviet: Power, Class, and Identity. Ed. Lewis H. Siegelbaum and Ronald Grigor Suny. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994. 341-375.
• Dowlah, Alex F., and John E. Elliot. The Life and Times of Soviet Socialism. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1997.
• Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Hilton, Marjorie L. "Retailing the Revolution: The State Department Store (GUM) and Soviet Society in the 1920s." Journal of Social History 37.4 (2004): 939+.
• Howard, Dick. The Specter of Democracy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.

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