The Russian Revolution

Despite its complexities, the Russian Revolution is one of the best revolutions to learn about - which is why it is by far the most popular in the VCE course (more than 40 percent of all students study it). Its ideas and events still resonate today, echoing through the Chinese Revolution and the Cold War. It had a doomed emperor, blinded by religion and tradition, and a domineering wife who succumbed to the charms of a dubious holy-man with a liking for prostitutes and cheap wine. The lead revolutionary was obsessive, determined to the extreme, a figure who would stop at nothing to secure power. One-hundred million Russians would be led through a generation of isolation, starvation, war, civil war and politically-motivated brutality in which countless millions would die. Little wonder that one writer called his Russian Revolution book "A People's Tragedy".

The Russian Revolution can be a multiplicity of things. To those who led it, it was the long-awaited but inevitable rise to power of the long-exploited working classes. To ordinary Russians, it was a year of great hope followed by a generation of darkness, misery and tyranny. To people of today, shaped and informed by Cold War values and rhetoric, it implemented an unworkable political and economic system that descended into evil. To socialists and communists, it represented a brief moment where the promise of equality was snuffed out by deceit, thievery and opposition, both inside and outside Russia. The goal of vcehistory.info is to provide insight into the revolution, its competing interests, characters and movements, allowing students to obtain a clear understanding and develop their own perspective about this amazing historical event.

Steve
vcehistory.info