Russian Civil War – World.V.You

The Uses of History, 28 – What Good Are Revolutions?, 3

One of the great questions debated to this day is whether Russia would have fared better under a continuation of the Tsarist regime, or perhaps under a Social Democratic successor regime had Kerensky and his like successively navigated the storm of 1918.

One can hardly imagine that either of those two alternatives could have been more monstrous that what ensued under Bolshevist-Communism.

The Uses of History, 25 – Russia the Long-Suffering, 7 – Revolution 1917, 2

There was no inevitability in an eventual Bolshevik takeover. With more unity and visionary, determined leadership, the Duma might have weathered the storm. But Kerensky pledged to Russia’s allies that Russia would remain in the war to “defend the Revolution” and honourably fulfill its treaty obligations. In June the much-shaken army was ordered to launch an offensive. It lasted three days, then collapsed as hundreds of thousands of troops simply refused to fight any more, sometimes just shooting their officers and walking away.