Essays by Schapiro on the political and intellectual history of late Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union.

Few events in history have exerted a more profound effect on our lives than the two revolutions of February and October 1917, which first established communism and the Soviet state in Russia and which ever since have served as an ambiguous symbol to socialists and would-be revolutionaries, to be imitated or despised, but never ignored. More than sixty-five years after the revolution, we still want to know: exactly how did the Bolsheviks capture power in 1917; and, even more important, how did they manage to hold on to that power in the face of the Party’s growing unpopularity? Leonard Schapiro is the author of the standard history of the Soviet Communist party and, in this beautifully written and meticulously researched book, he has provided us with what is bound to become the definitive account of the Bolshevik seizure of power for years to come. Drawing on the latest research findings as well as on a lifetime of reading and reflection, he guides us through that fateful year, examines the causes for the Bolshevik triumph and follows the course of communist rule up to the death of Lenin in 1924. He explores the complex relation of Lenin to Stalin, the crucial role of the army and the Party’s activities in the provinces. Above all, he focuses on the emergence of communism as a state force, a force with which the rest of the world is still trying to live. –- Dust jacket.