Readings on the Russian Revolution brings together 15 important post-Cold War writings on the history of the Russian Revolution. It is structured in such a way as to highlight key debates in the field and contrasting methodological approaches to the Revolution in order to help readers better understand the issues and interpretative fault lines that exist in this contested area of history.
The book opens with an original introduction which provides essential background and vital context for the pieces that follow. The volume is then structured around four parts – ‘Actors, Language, Symbols’, ‘War, Revolution, and the State’, ‘Revolutionary Dreams and Identities’ and ‘Outcomes and Impacts’ – that explore the beginnings, events and outcomes of the Russian Revolution, as well as examinations of central figures, critical topics and major historiographical battlegrounds. Melissa Stockdale also provides translations of two crucial Russian-language works, published here in English for the first time, and includes useful pedagogical features such as a glossary, chronology, and thematic bibliography to further aid study.
Readings on the Russian Revolution is an essential collection for anyone studying the Russian Revolution.
Edited by:
Professor Melissa K. Stockdale (University of Oklahoma USA)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 585g
ISBN: 9781350037410
ISBN 10: 1350037419
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 03 September 2020
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Contributors Map: European Russia, 1914 Introduction: 100 Years Later, Scholarship on the Russian Revolution after the Cold War, Melissa K. Stockdale Part I. 1917: Languages, Symbols, and Agency Chapter 1. Reflections on the Russian Revolution, Richard Pipes Excerpt from A Concise History of the Russian Revolution (Knopf, 1995) Chapter 2. Languages of Citizenship, Languages of Class: Workers and the Social Order, Orlando Figes and Boris I. Kolonitskii Excerpt from Interpreting the Russian Revolution (Yale University Press, 1999) Chapter 3.‘Water is Yours, Light is Yours, the Land is Yours, the Wood is Yours’, Sarah Badcock Excerpt from Politics and the People in Revolutionary Russia: A Provincial History (Cambridge University Press, 2007) Chapter 4.Kerenskii: Popular Brand and Revolutionary Symbol, Boris I. Kolonitskii Excerpt from “Tovarishch Kerenskii”: Antimonarkhicheskaia revoliutsiia I formirovanie kul’ta “vozhdia naroda”[“Comrade Kerenskii”: The Anti-Monarchic Revolution and Formation of the Cult of the “Leader of the People”] (Novoe literaturenoe obozrenie, 2017) Part II. War, Revolution, the State Chapter 5.Rise of the Warlords, Joshua Sanborn Excerpt from Imperial Apocalypse: The Great War and the Destruction of the Russian Empire (Oxford University Press, 2002) Chapter 6.Psychological Consolidation, Peter Holquist Excerpt from Making War, Forging Revolution: Russia’s Continuum of Crisis, 1914 – 1922 (Harvard University Press, 2002) Chapter 7.Social Disintegration, Igor Narskii Excerpt from Zhizn’ v katastrofe. Budni naselenie Urala v 1917-1922 gg.(ROSSPEN, 2001) [Life in Catastrophe: The Daily Experience of the Population of the Urals, 1917-1922] Chapter 8. Nationalizing the Revolution, Adeeb Khalid Excerpt from Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR (Cornell University Press, 2015) Part III. Revolutionary Dreams and Identities Chapter 9.Bolshevik Ritual Buildings in the 1920s, Richard Stites Excerpt from Russia in the Era of NEP: Explorations in Soviet Society and Culture (Indiana University Press, 1991) Chapter 10. Connecting, Emma Widdis Excerpt from Visions of a New Land: Soviet Film from the Revolution to the Second World War (Yale University Press, 2003) Chapter 11. Daily Life and Gender Transformation, Elizabeth A. Wood Excerpt from The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia (Indiana University Press, 1997) Chapter 12. Forging the Revolutionary Self, Jochen Hellbeck Excerpt from Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary Under Stalin (Harvard University Press, 2006) Part IV. Outcomes and Impacts Chapter 13. Ending the Revolution, Sheila Fitzpatrick Excerpt from The Russian Revolution, 3rd Edition (Oxford University Press, 2008) Chapter 14. Telling October, Frederick C. Corney Excerpt from Telling October: Memory and the Making of the Russian Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2008) Chapter 15. Communism and the New Forms of Dictatorship, Steven G. Marks Excerpt from How Russia Shaped the Modern World (Princeton University Press, 2003) Chronology of the Revolutionary Era Glossary Further Reading Index
Melissa K. Stockdale is Brian and Sandra O'Brien Presidential Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma, USA. She is the author of Mobilizing the Russian Nation: Patriotism and Citizenship in the First World War (2016) and Paul Miliukov and the Quest for a Liberal Russia, 1880-1918 (1997). She is also the co-editor, along with Murray Frame, Steven Marks and Boris Kolonitskii, of the two-volume Russian Culture in War and Revolution, 1914-1922 (2014) and Space, Place, and Power in Russia (2010), along with Mark Bassin and Christopher Ely.
Reviews for Readings on the Russian Revolution: Debates, Aspirations, Outcomes
The concentration on recent studies means the volume remains distinct from existing compilations ... Stockdale’s book, then, could usefully work in tandem with these earlier compilations for readers interested in the longer historiography of the revolution. In that regard, the volume’s essays are welcome introductions to the most influential recent analyses and debates for anyone eager to learn or teach about the Russian Revolution. * Michigan War Studies Review * This cleverly chosen selection of recent scholarship on the Russian Revolution will provide college students with a comprehensive sense of the different perspectives on the Revolution that have emerged since the opening of the Soviet archives. It provides an excellent introduction to innovative research on topics such as the non-Russian minorities, war and violence, language and culture. * Stephen Smith, Professor of History, University of Oxford, UK * A hundred years after Red October, scholars continue to debate the meaning of those revolutionary events. Melissa Stockdale has assembled here some of the last thirty years' most dynamic work on the subject—a diverse collection of key articles from across the political spectrum. * David Brandenberger, Professor of History and Global Studies, University of Richmond, USA * Melissa Stockdale has performed an enormous service for students and teachers of the Russian Revolution. These selected readings will orient students through the key themes and interpretative controversies that have characterized scholarship on the Revolution since the collapse of the USSR. Framed by a clear and insightful introduction, this will quickly become a required text. * James Ryan, Senior Lecturer in Modern European History, Cardiff University, UK *
