The Russian Revolution: 1917-1932--A Review
Author Sheila Fitzpatrick examines in her book, The Russian Revolution: 1917-1932, the most basic aspects of the revolution--causes, the aims, social support, the impact on the Russian society, the political outcome, and the time span of the revolution itself. Her essential theme is that the Russian Revolution differed from other revolutions in that it peculiarly has been described by various historians as ending at different times. Fitzpatrick treats the February and October Revolutions of 1917, the Civil War, the interlude of the New Economic Policy and Stalin's initial Five Year plan as successive stages in the overall revolution (3).
Fitzpatrick compares her view to that of Crane Brinton in Anatomy of Revolution, suggesting that revolutions have a form of their own, passing through the stages of enthusiasm for radical transformation, a zenith of intensity, a phase of disillusionment, and eventual reintegration of the new ideas into order (1). This theme provides the structure for this book as she moves through each revolutionary phase, comparing it to Brinton's anatomy. Her exploration of the historical and political details is thorough and complete with the point of view of a scholarly historian. Her position as Professor of History at the University of Texas in Austin and Visiting Fellow at the Research School of the Australian National University in Canberra gives her views credence and authority. This publication is not a blow by blow account of the events of the Russian Revolution, although much detailed information is examined which supports Fitzpatrick's basic theme.
The thesis of the book is that the Russian Revolution succeeded and failed from a Western point of view. Fitzpatrick evaluates the various conclusions that Westerners have drawn from those historical events, and she describes how the Revolution formed later Soviet society. Her emphasis on the social ...