Sheila Fitzpatrick is Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service Professor in Modern Russian History at the University of Chicago, specializing in Modern Russian and Soviet social, political, and cultural history. A past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and the recipient of a Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award, her other publications include Everyday Stalinism , Tear off the Masks! Identity and Imposture in Twentieth-Century Russia and most recently On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics.
A beautiful little introduction to the topic. This is a fine work for introductory students, as well as for general readers looking for a window into the Russian enigma. * Robert V. Daniels, University of Vermont * A succinct, insightful, and highly original interpretation of the Russian Revolution as a process of social transformation lasting from 1917 to 1937... Fitzpatrick gives us a challenging rethinking that will shape our discussions for years to come. * Ronald Suny, University of Michigan * A welcome new edition of this classic history, a triumph of concision and incise analysis by a scholar who knows more than almost anyone about the early years of the Soviet system. * Orlando Figes, Birkbeck College, London, and author of A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924 * Review from previous edition A lucid and indeed instantly classic explanation of the revolutionary spirit in its pre-1917 and Lenin-then-Stalin dominated stages * Tribune *