Figes

On the Tsar

“Nicholas was the source of all the problems… he was the empty space.”

Service

On the Tsar

“The collapse of the autocracy was rooted in a crisis of modernisation.”

On the October Revolution

“Popular uprising have never been organised by a people as a whole. Only a minority directly participates.”

“‘…the revolution transformation was not monopolised by the political elites but also involved the masses acting in their own interests and through their own organisations.”

Fitzpatrick

On the February Revolution

“The autocracy collapsed in the face of popular demonstrations and the withdrawal of elite support for the regime.”

Smith

On the October Revolution

“The October seizure of power generated an exhilarating sense that a new world was in the offing where justice and equality would triumph over arbitrariness and exploitation.”

Nove

On the October Revolution

“The authority of the government had virtually collapsed for some weeks before the Bolsheviks seized the Winter Palace with a relatively insignificant group of ill-armed Red Guards.”

Wood

On the October Revolution

“It was caused by the spontaneous upsurge of the politically radicalised masses.”