Toward a Social History of the October RevolutionRonald Grigor Suny
The American Historical Review
Vol. 88, No. 1 (Feb., 1983), pp. 31-52
In the 65 years after the October Revolution, Western scholars have been unable to formulate a consensus on the reasons for the Bolsheviks' rapid rise to power between February and October 1917. Deep divisions exist among historians in Europe and America on fundamental questions of value, causation, and methodology, while a more frigid scholarly Cold War separates Western and Soviet histori
IN THE SIXTY-FIVE YEARS AFTER THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION, Western scholarshave been unable to formulate a consensus on the reasons for the Bolsheviks' rapid rise to power between February and October 1917. Deep divisions continue to exist among academic historians in Europe and America on fundamental questions of value, causation, and methodology, while a more frigid scholarly Cold War sep- arates Western historians from their Soviet counterparts. Carried on in the polite and moderate language appropriate to "scientific"prose, the debate over 1917 has been, despite all intentions, implicitly politicized and has involved an attempt to explain not only the progress of a major revolution but also the roots of a new type of social and political order, one that some praise as socialism and others condemn as Stalinism or totalitarianism.