ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the Russian Revolution and its impacts during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The chapter describes conditions in the Russian empire that led many of its people to embrace revolution and the development of major revolutionary ideologies and groups and their actions. The formation of the critically important Russian Social Democratic Party is described, along with its Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. The 1905 attempted revolution is depicted as well as attempts by the monarchy to prevent future revolutionary uprisings. The chapter proceeds to cover the effects of World War I, the February and October revolutions, the civil war, foreign intervention, and the creation of the Bolshevik one-party state. The leadership struggle between Trotsky and Stalin is explained as well as the reasons for Stalin’s triumph and his subsequent actions. The effects of World War II on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are discussed as well as characteristics of the cold war. Movements for democracy and their outcomes in Eastern European states and the USSR are depicted as are later developments in these states, including the rise of right-wing authoritarian regimes and the Putin-led government in Russia. Russia’s alleged involvement in US politics is also described.
