A People's History of the Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution may well be the most misunderstood event in modern history. In this fast-paced introduction, Neil Faulkner debunks the myths that continue to shroud it, showing how a mass movement of millions, organised in democratic assemblies, mobilised for militant action and destroyed a regime of landlords, profiteers and warmongers.

Faulkner rejects caricatures of Lenin and the Bolsheviks as authoritarian conspirators, 'democratic-centralists' or the progenitors of Stalinist dictatorship; though short-lived, the Revolution of October 1917 was an explosion of democracy and creativity. Crushed by bloody counter-revolution, its socialist vision was ultimately displaced by a monstrous form of bureaucratic state-capitalism.

Laced with first-hand testimony, this history rescues the democratic essence of the revolution from its detractors and deniers, offering a perfect primer for the modern reader.

"Among the countless books which are beginning to appear as the centenary of the Russian Revolution approaches, there is a real need for a clear, historically reliable popular account from a socialist perspective. Faulkner's People's History is that account. Arguing against both right-wing myths that reduce October to a mere coup, and left-sectarian myths that treat of the Bolshevik party as an infallible 'democratic centralist' monolithic, Faulkner forcefully reminds us that the early years of the Russian Revolution saw one of the greatest explosions of mass democracy in human history." - Neil Davidson, author of We Cannot Escape History: Nations, States, and Revolutions

"The experience and example of Russia in 1917 has never been more relevant than in the troubled times we are living through today. The legacy of the Revolution’s centenary is going to be fiercely fought over with the political right determined to discredit the very idea of social revolution, indeed to make it unthinkable. A People’s History of the Russian Revolution, written by one of the finest historians on the left, Faulkner, is a vital contribution to the debate, an essential defence of the revolutionary experience. It is to be wholeheartedly welcomed." - John Newsinger, Bath Spa University