The Fate of the October Revolution under Stalin

  • Details
  • Transcript
  • Audio
  • Downloads
  • Extra Reading

When Lenin died in 1924, he had effected a temporary stabilisation of the Soviet order. But many political, economic, social and international trends grew more worrisome to Bolsheviks who still wished to preserve ‘the gains of October’. The solution that the Politburo adopted at Stalin’s suggestion was a comprehensive revolutionary offensive. It increased the powers of the state over society, but this was never wholly acceptable in the communist central leadership, and tensions contributed to Stalin’s Great Terror. 

The USSR became a great European power and helped defeat Nazi Germany but had ‘October’ been saved or its foundations been destroyed?

Download Transcript

This event was on Wed, 31 Jan 2018

Speaker_RobertService.jpg

Professor Bob Service

Professor Service is an Emeritus Fellow at St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He is a Professor of Russian History and an accomplished author in Russian history from the late nineteenth-century to the present day.

Find out more

Support Gresham

Gresham College has offered an outstanding education to the public free of charge for over 400 years. Today, Gresham plays an important role in fostering a love of learning and a greater understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Your donation will help to widen our reach and to broaden our audience, allowing more people to benefit from a high-quality education from some of the brightest minds.