Russian Revolution ─ Hope, Tragedy, Myths

One hundred years ago events in Russia took the world by storm. In February 1917, in the middle of World War I and following months of protest and political unrest, Tsar Nicholas II abdicated. Later that year a new political force, the socialist Bolshevik Party, seized power under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. A bloody civil war and period of extraordinary hardship for Russians finally led to the establishment of the Soviet Union. This book accompanies a major exhibition that will reexamine the Russian Revolution in light of recent research, focusing on the experiences of ordinary Russians living through extraordinary times. The Revolution was not a single event but a complex process of dramatic change. Here, leading experts on Russian history reveal the Revolution as a utopian project that had traumatic consequences for people across Russia and beyond.

Ekaterina Rogatchevskaia is Lead Curator of East European Collections at the British Library.