There have been many books and potted histories of the Russian Revolution, either written from an anti-Bolshevik perspective, or its Stalinist mirror image, which paint a false account of the rise of Bolshevism. For them, Bolshevism is either a historical "accident" or "tragedy." Or it is portrayed erroneously as the work of one great man (Lenin) who marched single-minded toward the October Revolution. Author Alan Woods* reveals the real evolution of Bolshevism as a living struggle of various class forces, tendencies and individuals. Using a wealth of primary sources, Woods uncovers the fascinating growth and development of Bolshevism in pre-revolutionary Russia up to the seizure of power in October 1917. This is the first U.S. publication of this monumental work. It comes at an important time, as the world economic crisis calls for a thorough study of working class history in order to educate a new generation of revolutionaries.
Author
Alan Woods (born 1944, Swansea, Wales) is a Trotskyist political theorist. He is one of the leading members of the British group Socialist Appeal as well as its parent group, the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). He is political editor of the IMT's In Defence of Marxism website. Woods supported the Militant tendency within the UK Labour Party until the early 1990s, when he and Ted Grant were expelled from the tendency and founded the Committee for a Marxist International (soon renamed International Marxist Tendency) in 1992. They continued with the policy of entryism into the Labour Party. Woods has been particularly vocal in his support for the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, and has repeatedly met with the socialist Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, leading to speculation he was a close political adviser.
