Interdisciplinary journal focusing primarily on sociological, political science and historical perspectives on the issue of long-term social processes and trends, modernization, globalization tendency and impacts.
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Published by Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press, cooperated with Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague.
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HISTORICKÁ SOCIOLOGIE, Vol 10 No 1 (2018), 123–143
The Unimaginable Revolution: 1917 in Retrospect
Johann Pall Arnason
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/23363525.2018.42
published online: 28. 06. 2018
abstract
The essay takes off from current controversies about Communism, and on the relative weight of its cultural, political and economic components. The discussion then moves, in light of recent historical scholarship, to problems of conceptualizing the revolutionary process that gave rise to Soviet Communism. A strong emphasis is placed on the singularity of the Russian revolution, and on the limits to general theories of revolution. Hasegawa’s revised work on the February revolution of 1917 is discussed at some length, and his interpretation of that event as an interaction between popular and liberal forces is accepted. The following months saw the emergence of multiple revolutionary movements, but also the strengthening of an organization and an alternative leadership with a project different from the main currents of the revolution, but capable of conquering power through a selective mobilization of revolutionary forces. The presuppositions of Bolshevism are analyzed, as well as the implications of its victory. The essay finishes with reflections on Stalinism and its roots in the revolutionary process.
keywords: Bolshevism; Communism; Russia; World War I; revolution; empire; Lenin; Stalin
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The Unimaginable Revolution: 1917 in Retrospect is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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ISSN: 1804-0616
E-ISSN: 2336-3525
