The Russian Revolution is one of the darkest moments in recent history. It led to millions and millions of deaths, and even more impoverished and horribly oppressed by communist governments in the twentieth century. Richard Pipes is one of the most renowned scholars of the Russian Revolution, with two long books, The Russian Revolution and Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, that describe in gory detail the monstrosities of Russia around the time of its red revolution.
However, for those without the time to go through the 1300 pages and 4500 references contained in those two books, Pipes created a précis which is the topic of this review. Stripped of most of the citations (Pipes notes they’re available in the other books) but brimming with details, maps, and photographs, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution is a vital introductory text for anyone wishing to understand the history behind and during the first successful communist revolution.
The details within are illuminating and frequently terrifying. After a brief discussion of Russian life and culture in the last years of Tsarist rule, including details about the revolution of 1905 and the Great War, Pipes digs into the Bolshevik revolution and concludes with the death of Lenin. As such, the book is an excellent source for pushback against the “Good Lenin, Bad Stalin” myth, and it continues with deep looks at propaganda of the time and the way the Bolsheviks perverted the educational systems. He touches on the “abandoned children” phenomenon, caused by mass black-bagging of political dissidents and describes in detail many of the atrocities of the early Bolshevik regime, including its treatment of so-called “rebels,” who could actually be anyone at anytime, regardless of guilt or innocence.
Although the book focuses on Lenin, the rise and fall of many individuals, most prominently Trotsky, and the rise of Stalin and others are analyzed in grim detail. The conspiracies and machinations of the upper echelons of the communist party are laid out clearly and factually. We are spared a description of the monstrosities committed by the party under Stalin only because the book ends with the death of Lenin. But worry not, Pipes wrote a huge number of books about Russia and the Soviet Union, so if you have found this one interesting, you will probably like the others.
As noted above, A Concise History of the Russian Revolution is a summary, so interested scholars will need to move on to Pipes’s more detailed works, but for a brief introduction to this very significant period and all the twists and turns that were a part of it, this book is the gold standard. I recommend it highly to anyone seeking to learn about the Russian Revolution, and to anyone wishing to see the brutality, poverty, and terror that are the hallmarks of a totalitarian state. At a little over 400 pages, it may seem like a large project to read, but it is merely a taste of what an out-of-control state can do to those it claims as its people. As such, it is a vital resource for any who cherish liberty.