The Russian Revolutions

Catalog description

The Russian revolutions of 1917 rank among the most monumental events of the modern era. The collapse of the tsarist regime and the triumph of communism placed Russia on a tumultuous and often painful path toward modernization and forever changed the course of world history. Beginning with the 1890s and continuing until the early 1920s, this course will analyze the background, the unfolding, and the aftermath of the twin upheavals of 1917: the February Revolution that destroyed the Russian monarchy and the October Revolution that brought the Soviet government to power. Students will investigate the political, socio-economic, cultural, and ideological factors that shaped this transformation, and will also explore the interactions among revolutionary processes and military events such as World War I and the Russian Civil War. They will utilize recent scholarship on these topics to develop their own understanding of the historiography of the subject.