Russia’s revolution has remained intensely controversial for every one of the 80 years since it took place. One central charge made time and again by right-wing and liberal critics of the revolution is that the peaceful emergence of a parliamentary regime was frustrated by the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917. Mike Haynes’s rebuttal of this argument is unusual in taking the options of Russia’s rulers as its starting point. He emphasises the political choices made by the parties of the right and by the socialist supporters of the government. He concludes by demonstrating how these strategies failed to address the most fundamental concerns of the Russian masses and so propelled them towards adopting a revolutionary solution to the crisis.
Alternative URL: REDS – Die Roten.