Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928

This is a difficult book to read without having a good grounding in Russian history. The author claims to have written it for a reader who doesn’t have much background in Russian history, but I found it very hard going. Much of the book is fascinating because of the complexity and diversity of Russian society before 1917. It is quite obvious that the author is well versed in this history and has a good handle on the many factions of Russian society at that time. How politics can be taken out of the hands of the elites and placed with workers is as relevant today as at any time. How noble were the ideas of this revolution and how cumbersome was the building of the new state. It seems that no matter how a philosophy drives idealistic action, humans are driven to create new elites and new systems of suppression. The time in history of the Russian revolution is a fascinating study. This book would be welcome to any reader needing to understand those times.