ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Stalin's contribution to and impact on Russian and world events in the first half of the twentieth century. It examines his main activities in the revolution down to the victory in the Russian Civil War. In his brilliantly evocative memoir of 1917, the left-wing Menshevik-Internationalist activist Nikolai Sukhanov described Stalin as a 'grey blur'. Resuming his leading roles including membership of the editorial board of Pravda from 15 March 1917, Stalin preached the same sermon as everyone else in the party. In fact, arguably, the potential counter-revolution from the right and the ancien regime was continually overestimated by the Bolsheviks and others right down to the decisive moments in the Civil War. Trotsky, in particular, was scathing about these half-hearted, conciliatory revolutionaries. A second key point is that, as Trotsky argued, Stalin does refer to 'revolutionary Social Democracy' rather than to Bolshevism. The Russian Revolution was a highly complex event about which historians have developed many interpretations.
