A-level History

The Russian Revolution – Reading List

The Russian Revolution remains one of the defining events of the modern era, and there have
consequently been a huge number of books written about it.

Below is a small selection of these books that would repay any serious student’s time. Any one of
them can be read with profit, and the best approach is to perhaps check the descriptions and reviews
on Amazon and then select the one that most appeals. They cover the same ground, obviously, but
with different perspectives and approaches.

The Histories

“A People’s Tragedy” by Orlando Figes. This immense history is a rich, granular

approach that exemplifies the best in historical writing. Yes, it is a very large tome, but
no ambitious student interested in history will regret the time spent on this volume.
Once you have finished, you will find other histories to be just a bit paler by
comparison. It starts a little slowly, setting the scene of late Tsarist Russia, but once
the revolution begins it is an utterly gripping read.

“Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921” by Antony Beevor. The most recent
(2022) book to be published about the revolution, Beevor provides a narrative
history strongly focused around the military events of the civil war. He doesn’t spare
the reader details of the often gruesome punishments carried out by all sides, and
the narrative moves at pace, even if there are a lot of names to conjure with and
little linking commentary. However, be aware that this is not a political history and
he does not consider the various political questions in any depth.

“Lenin on the Train” by Catherine Merridale. Another recent publication, Dr

Merridale’s lecture was well-received by L6th students who heard her at a Russia
conference, and the tale of Lenin’s journey from Germany to Russia, funded by the
German government in the full expectation that Lenin would be a disruptor of their
wartime opponent, is a fascinating way in to the man and his mission, and the
circumstances at the beginning of the Russian Revolution.

“Caught in the Revolution” by Helen Rappaport. Helen Rappaport has written

several books on aspects of the Russian Revolution, and this one captures the
essence of the year 1917, between the first and second revolutions. She brings to
life the swirling maelstrom that was St Petersburg, or Petrograd, in that year with keen eye for detail
and the lives of a variety of people.

“A Concise History of the Russian Revolution” by Richard Pipes. Pipes was the doyen of
American historians writing about Russia, and his Concise History, whilst perhaps not
quite as concise as the average A-level student might wish, nonetheless distils years of
research and writing about the revolution in a very accessible fashion.

“The Russian Revolution: A Very Short Introduction” by Steve Smith is a concise and comprehensive
overview of the revolution in this well-respected series.

The Eye-Witness Accounts

“Ten Days That Shook the World” by John Reed. Reed was an American journalist,
and socialist sympathiser, who was in Petrograd when the communist revolution
broke out. His is one of the very few eye-witness accounts written
contemporaneously, and it has all the virtues of a journalist for whom words are
his profession, as well as a man deeply invested in the events. Of course he brings
his biases to the fore, but few books better capture the excitement and passion of
the events, from a man who was there.

“Six Weeks in Russia” by Arthur Ransome. Better known as the writer of gentle
children’s books set in the Lake District (“the “Swallows and Amazons” series)
Ransome had an extraordinary past as a double agent in Russia at the time of the
revolution. Sympathetic to the plight of the Russians under the Tsars, this book is a
much more domestic view of ordinary people when the revolution broke out. It
does, however, benefit from Ransome’s extraordinary access to the communist
leaders – his lover was Trotsky’s secretary, whom he later married – and the
domestic way he portrays them is in contrast to most other accounts.

“A History of the Russian Revolution” by Leon Trotsky. Written after Stalin exiled
him from the Soviet Union in 1929, this is Trotsky’s highly partial, but undeniably
well written, account of the events in which he played such a seminal role (second
only to Lenin). Described by the British author Roland Chambers as “a colossal
vanity mirror”, it nonetheless gives an indispensable view of events from one of its
ring-leaders.
For Context, Try……

“A Short History of Russia” by Mark Galeotti. Excellent, concise overview of Russian

history from an expert currently much in demand in writing about Russia’s war in
Ukraine. This is an excellent book for a contextual understanding of Russia’s long
history.

Another excellent, and very readable, book for context is Simon Sebag
Montefiore’s superb “Young Stalin”, tracking the later ruthless dictator’s early
history as a revolutionary in Tsarist Russia, right up to the 1917 revolution. A
brilliant, personality-based way in to the revolution, and an utterly thrilling read,
giving insights about Stalin that had never been shown before. The makers of
Star Wars spin-off series “Andor” based their heist scene on events in this book!