Revolutionary Russia, 1905-1921

In under twenty years, Russia experienced three revolutions, world war, civil war, the collapse of the three-hundred-year-old Romanov dynasty, and the rise of the Soviet state. This course examines the causes and consequences of these tumultuous years from 1905 to 1921, exploring the rich political, social and cultural world of revolutionary Russia. It looks at the challenges of reform and modernisation in late imperial period, the rise of revolutionary politics, the impact of the First World War and the immediate events of 1917 leading to the establishment of Bolshevik power, before assessing the Red victory in the civil war, utopian culture and the consolidation of the early Soviet state. In doing so, the course focuses on the centres of power in Moscow and Petersburg, but also ventures into provinces and countryside to assess the ways in which political and social change unfolded elsewhere. We will also engage with critical historiographical debates on the ‘inevitable’ fall of the Romanov dynasty, continuities between the late imperial and early Soviet systems, and the relationship between state, society and the individual before and after 1917. Our discussions are supported by five in-depth thematic seminars which use a set of primary sources to dig deeper into individuals’ experiences of, and responses to, the arc of revolution from 1905-1921.