A short history of the Russian revolution /

Swain (emer., Univ. of Glasgow) is a fine historian and an accessible writer whose excellent record of publications on Russian and Latvian history makes him eminently qualified to write a book about the Russian Revolution. The title, however, is somewhat misleading. Far from being an overview of the earthshaking events of 1917, Swain offers an academic monograph intended more for experts than for general readers. While the recent trend in studies on the Russian Revolution has been to focus on the periphery and the spontaneous actions of the peasantry, Swain sets his gaze squarely on the capital of St. Petersburg, where the Bolsheviks were rapidly building up their base of support among the city's exhausted workers in the summer and autumn of 1917. Power was theirs for the taking. Swain's thesis is bold and consistent, if not entirely persuasive, for he views the October Revolution as a popular revolution and the logical outcome of an intense period of labor confrontation that preceded WW I. "When the Tsar was overthrown by working-class action in February 1917, the potential for Bolshevik power was already there." Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty. --Kevin C. O'Connor, Gonzaga University