REVOLUTIONS
HISTORIOGRAPY
Russia
Soviet Orthodox
or Marxist
Western Liberal
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION:
HISTORIOGRAPHY
RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION
Revisionist
‘Despite their differences, historians can loosely be categorised
into three main interpretations of the Russian Revolution –
Soviet, Liberal and Revisionist’ (Malone)
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION:
SOVIET ORTHODOXY
or
MARXIST INTERPRETATIONS
•The Revolution was both necessary and inevitable
•Lenin was infallible – revolution achieved by the
masses as directed and represented by the
Bolsheviks
•The revolution was a good thing and the actions of
the Red Army and Cheka were justified to save the
gains of the Revolution
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION:
LIBERAL OR WESTERN
INTERPRETATIONS
•Focuses more on influence of leaders and asserts
Marxism in a flawed ideology
•Sees nationalism, culture, ideas and religion as
prominent
•Revolution not inevitable, but ‘fortunate’ and the
October Revolution as a ruthless Bolshevik takeover
•Bolsheviks ruined development of ‘western-style’
democracy in Russia
•A ‘dictatorship over the proletariat’, not ‘of the
proletariat’
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION:
REVISIONIST
INTERPRETATIONS
•Focus on social circumstance of the masses and
political consequences of their discontent
•Explore extent to which the revolution occurred
from below
•Explore link between average people’s impact of
developments through their roles in Red Guard,
Soviets, trade unions, and factory, soldiers and
peasants communities
•Further explored social and political tension under
the Tsarist regime
HANDY QUOTES FOR
RUSSIA AREA OF
STUDY 1
Fitzpatrick on Bloody Sunday
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The autocracy, for its part, was consistently on the defensive, seized by panic and
confusion, and apparently unable to restore order’ (Fitzpatrick)
Russo
Japanese War
Bloody Sunday
October
Manifesto
Creation of
Dumas
Pipes on Bloody Sunday
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
The massacres damaged irreparably the image of the good Tsar (Pipes)
Russo
Japanese War
Bloody Sunday
October
Manifesto
Creation of
Dumas
Trotsky on Bloody Sunday
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
The revolution of 1905 mortally wounded the monarchy (Trotsky)
Russo
Japanese War
Bloody Sunday
October
Manifesto
Creation of
Dumas
Fitzpatrick on the effects of the
Russo-Japanese War
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The spirit of national solidarity against the autocracy was very strong during the
first nine months of 1905’ (Fitzpatrick)
Tsarism
RussoJapanese War
Bloody Sunday
Christian on the October
Manifesto
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The manifesto marked the end of autocratic government; for the first time the
tsar was forced to share his law making powers’ (Christain)
Bloody Sunday
October
Manifesto
The Dumas
Fundamental
Laws of 1906
Fitzpatrick on the Fundamental
Laws of 1906
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The political outcome of the 1905 Revolution was ambiguous, and in some ways
unsatisfactory to all concerned’ (Fitzpatrick)
Bloody Sunday
October
Manifesto
The Dumas
Fundamental
Laws of 1906
Fitzpatrick on the Dumas
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The Duma’s main importance... lay in providing a public forum for political
debate and a training ground for politicians’ (Fitzpatrick).
Key Political
Parties
The Dumas
Fundamental
Laws of 1906
Trotsky on the Stolypin and Witte
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘Men of brain and character he [the tsar] summoned only in extreme situations
when there was no other way out, just as we call in a surgeon to save our lives. It
was so with Witte, and afterwards with Stolypin. The tsar treated both with illconcealed hostility
Witte’s
reforms
Stolypin’s
reforms
Tsar Nicholas II
Pipes on Stolypin’s reforms
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The results of Stolypin’s agrarian reforms must be judged as exceedingly
modest’ (Pipes)
Success or
failure of
reforms
Peasants
economy, causes
of tension
The Dumas
Taylor on Tsar Nicholas
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
He had a dull, airless mind, shielded by inherited prejudice from all contact with
social or political reality. [He was] an autocrat by fanatic conviction...’ (Taylor)
Pre
Revolutionary
Govnerment
Tsar Nicholas II
The Dumas
Lynch on World War 1
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘What destroyed Tsardom was the length of the war.... the cumulative effect of a
long drawn-out struggle proved too destructive to be borne.... By 1917, , the tsarist
system had forfeited all claim to the loyalty of the Russian people’ (Lynch).
World War 1
Tsarism
Abdication of
the Tsar
Fitzpatrick on Rasputin
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘Scandal surrounded Alexandra’s relationship with Rasputin, a shady but
charismatic character who she trusted as a true man of God who could control her
son’s haemophilia. (Fitzpatrick)
Rasputin
The Tsarevish
Alexandra
The Dumas
Trotsky on the February
Revolution
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
To the question ‘Who led the February Revolution?’ we can answer definitely
enough: Conscious and tempered workers educated for the most part by the Party
of Lenin’
Marxism /
Leninism
Role of Lenin
and Bolsheviks
and ideas in
February 1917
Key political
parties and
Personailities
Christain on the abdication of Tsar
Nicholas II
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘It seems that Nicholas’ failures as a politician go a long way to explaining why,
when the revolution came in 1917, it swept away not only the autocratic
government, but the whole traditional ruling group of Russia’ (Fitzpatrick).
Abdication of
the Tsar
February
Revolution
Tsar Nicholas II
An important equation:
The Provisional Government and
the Petrograd Soviet
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
Russia entered a period of Dual Government, wherein the Provisional
Government had authority without power, and the Petrograd Soviet had power
without authority (Malone)
Petrograd
Soviet
Provisional
Government
Dual
Government
Christian on the October
Revolution
Russia
AOS1
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The moment marked the final collapse of the traditional Russian political
The success
the coup
system’of(Christain)
Provisional
Government
Petrograd Soviet
Role of Trotsky
October
Revolution
2nd Congress
of Soviets
HANDY QUOTES FOR
RUSSIA: AREA OF
STUDY 2
Pipes on the Constituent
Assembly
Russia
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
“The machine gun became for them the principle instrument of political
Thepersuasion…and
success of the coup
they could use it with impunity” (Pipes).
Constituent
Assembly
The Cheka
The Red Army
War
Communism
Fitzpatrick on the Civil War
Russia
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘The Civil War undoubtedly had an enormous impact on the Bolsheviks and
the young
Soviet
Republic. It polarised society, leaving lasting resentments
The success
of the
coup
and scars’ (Fitzpatrick)
Civil War
War
Communism
The Red Army
The Cheka
War Communism
Russia
AOS2
Bothconsider
Soviet andthat
Western
Marxist historians
thatapplies
policies oftoWar
Firstly,
a historians’
ideasargue
often
more than
Communism, though severe, were necessary due to the economic collapse and
onewar.
aspect of the Revolution. For example:
For liberal
historians,
The success
of the
coup such as Pipes, the policies demonstrated Bolshevik
ideological fanatacism rather than a credible response
Civil War
War
Communism
The Red Army
The Cheka
Pipes on the Red Terror
Russia
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one
aspect
the Revolution.
Forresponse
example:
“…the
‘Redof
Terror’
was not a reluctant
the actions of others but a
prophylactic measure designed to nip in the bud any thoughts of resistance to
the dictatorship” (Pipes)
The success of the coup
Civil War
War
Communism
The Red Army
The Cheka
Service on the Red Terror
Russia
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
“Lenin,
Trotsky
andRevolution.
Dzerzhinsky believed
that over-killing was better than
one
aspect
of the
For example:
running the risk of being overthrown” (Service)
The success of the coup
Civil War
War
Communism
The Red Army
The Cheka
Fitzpatrick on The Cheka
Russia
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
‘After the outbreak of the Civil War, the Cheka became an organ terror,
dispensing summary justice’ (Fitzpatrick)
The success of the coup
Civil War
War
Communism
The Cheka
Figes on the Red Army
Russia
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one‘The
aspect
of the Revolution. For example:
success of the Red Army increasingly led to the application of military
methods throughout the Soviet system. Nothing did more to shape the
ruling attitudes of the Bolsheviks than the experience of the civil war’
The success of the coup
(Figes)
Civil War
War
Communism
The Red
Army
Figes on the NEP
Russia
AOS2
Firstly, consider that a historians’ ideas often applies to more than
one aspect of the Revolution. For example:
“Having defeated the Whites, who were backed up by no fewer than eight
western powers, the Bolsheviks surrendered to the peasantry” (on the NEP).
The success
(Figes)of the coup
NEP: Impact and Results
A COUPLE OF HANDY
GENERAL QUOTES FOR
RUSSIA
Figes on outcome of the
Revolution
Russia
AOS1
Firstly,
consider
that a historians’
ideas
often applies
to more than
“The
Russian Revolution
launched a vast
experiment
in social engineering
–
theof
grandest
in the history ofFor
mankind…The
oneperhaps
aspect
the Revolution.
example:experiment went
horribly wrong, not so much because of the malice of its leaders, most of
whom had started out with the highest of ideals, but because their ideals were
themselves
(Figes)
The success
of theimpossible”
coup
Any discussion about the outcome
ofthe revolution
Volkogonov on outcome of the
Revolution
Russia
AOS1
Firstly,
consider
a historians’
ideas
often
to more
than
“…despite
the that
fact that
millions of honest
people,
ledapplies
by the ‘vanguard
of the
onerevolution’,
aspect oflaboured
the Revolution.
For
example:
for it, the utopia
remained
a fairy-tale” (Volkogonov)
The success of the coup
Any discussion about the outcome
ofthe revolution
Reed on outcome of the
Revolution
Russia
AOS1
‘ The
only reason
forathe
Bolshevik success
in their
accomplishing
the vast
Firstly,
consider
that
historians’
ideaslayoften
applies
to more
than
simple desires of the most profound strata of the people, calling them to
oneand
aspect
of the Revolution. For example:
the work of tearing down and destroying the old’ (John Reed)
The success of the coup
Any discussion about the success of
the Bolsheviks