Fitzpatrick Sheila. The Russian Revolution 1917-1932

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. — 181 p.This book is concerned with the Russian Revolution in its widest sense-not only with the events of 19176 and what preceded them, but with the nature of the social transformation brought about by the Bolsheviks after they took power. Professor Fitzpatrick's analysis extends through the period of the Civil War and the New Economic Policy up to Stalin's 'revolution from above' at the beginning of the 1930s. Her account, widely praised on first publication for its clarity and for its historical objectivity, confronts the key questions: what did the dictatorship of the proletariat really mean in practice? And was Lenin's revolution, in the hands of Stalin, accomplished-or betrayed? How did the experience of the Civil War guide all the further actions of the Soviet state, both internally and in foreign policy?