Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides several pieces of original research in honour of Geoffrey Swain by historians who have exchanged ideas with him at various points in his career. It focuses on Russian history in the revolutionary years of 1917 and after. The book examines in particular the repercussions of the ‘New Course’ in Latvia where it provoked anti-Russian sentiment and the removal of Russians cadres from leading Party and government positions and their replacement by ethnic Latvians. It offers a critical analysis of Swain's contributions to the history of the Civil War setting his work in the context of broader developments in the field. The book argues that Geoffrey Swain's work has ‘cut against the grain in many respects’, but that the case for the potentiality of an alternative outcome to the Civil War struggles—a ‘Third Way’—remains to be proven.