The 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution: Jubilee Milestones in National Historiography

Abstract

This article presents an analytical review of most recent historical discourse on the Russian Revolution of 1917. Drawing on contemporary historical scholarship, it analyzes the main trends and elements of modern historiography, focusing on the most recent events that preceded the 100th anniversary of the Revolution. The authors note that the history of the Revolution is preserved in monographs and theses in a stable fashion. The traditional array of issues is scrutinized using original approaches. Among them are: studies in the nature and character of contradictions between the regime and society, national and regional features of civil confrontation, and the relationship of the state of state of culture in Russian society and the revolutionary process. One trend is that areas of historical research have been expanding. The most significant trends are the following: revealing common features in Russian state development before, during, and after the revolution; the war as a factor in the internal crisis and political processes of the revolutionary period; features of mass consciousness and social dispositions of contemporaries. Considering the revolutionary events, scholars provide a wide range of opinions, some of them controversial. Specialists in theories of history suggest that that, for the genesis and essence of the revolution, the modernization approach has proved to be particularly fruitful. The newest approach lies in anthropological approaches and studies of everyday life. The authors focus on some of the most significant studies of recent years, and include, a review of the latest encyclopedic and reference publications of primary sources.