ABSTRACT
After decades of Soviet (and often Western) assumptions as to the inevitability of the collapse of the tsarist regime, the period centring on 1905 is now being radically reinterpreted, above all in the economic field. Enhanced availability of archives, especially provincial ones, is at last allowing detailed work to be done on local areas. This is especially important for 1905, when the periphery of the Empire was often more violent than the centre. Moreover, new interests – above all in the field of the new ‘cultural history’ – have shifted the focus of enquiry. The role of the political parties, so long the centre of concern, is now being played down in favour of the aspirations, discourse and actions of the popular movement itself.
