Alexander Herzen and the Role of the Intellectual Revolutionary

Alexander Herzen (1812-70) was the most outstanding figure in the early period of the Russian revolutionary movement. Lenin claimed him as a forerunner of the Bolsheviks, and Soviet scholars have sought to establish his latent sympathy with Marxism. In the west on the other hand, he has been seen as a precursor of Solzhenitsyn, the personification of protest against all forms of oppression. Dr Acton provides a compelling intellectual biography. The focus is on the years between 1847 and 1863. Herzen's ideas are set in the context of those political developments and dramatic private experiences that affected his outlook. His profound faith in human nature and in the inevitable triumph of socialism was undermined not only by the failure of the revolutions of 1848, but even more deeply by personal catastrophe - the discovery of the infidelity of his beautiful wife Natalie. This dual blow, Dr Acton shows, had a decisive impact upon Herzen's approach to Russian problems. It lay at the root of the ambivalent attitude he adopted towards peasant revolution in the critical period of Emancipation.

Acton, Edward

Biographies & Memoirs

Cambridge University Press

Alexander Herzen (1812-70) was the most outstanding figure in the early period of the Russian revolutionary movement. Lenin claimed him as a forerunner of the Bolsheviks, and Soviet scholars have sought to establish his latent sympathy with Marxism. In the west on the other hand, he has been seen as a precursor of Solzhenitsyn, the personification of protest against all forms of oppression. Dr Acton provides a compelling intellectual biography. The focus is on the years between 1847 and 1863. Herzen's ideas are set in the context of those political developments and dramatic private experiences that affected his outlook. His profound faith in human nature and in the inevitable triumph of socialism was undermined not only by the failure of the revolutions of 1848, but even more deeply by personal catastrophe - the discovery of the infidelity of his beautiful wife Natalie. This dual blow, Dr Acton shows, had a decisive impact upon Herzen's approach to Russian problems. It lay at the root of the ambivalent attitude he adopted towards peasant revolution in the critical period of Emancipation.

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

At the heart of the book is the relationship between the Russian State and Russian society at large. The structure is chronological, starting with the earliest Russian state based on Kiev, and tracing the rise and fall of both Tsarist and Soviet Russia in turn. It ends with the Russian Federation of today, and its many troubles. It concentrates on five key themes that are central to an understanding of Russian society at the end of the twentieth century: how the writ of the Tsar, and then the Communist Party, came to run over a territory covering one-sixth of the world's surface; the complex way Russia's international setting has interacted with her socio-political development; why it should have been Russia, the most backward of Europe's Great Powers in 1917, that should have embarked on the 'socialist' experiment; how this backwardness has affected her political, economic, social and cultural development ever since; and, finally, the process by which, in the Soviet period, the state came to mediate such a broad range of human activity. For the new edition, Edward Acton has not merely extended his text to include the fall of the USSR and the uncertainties of post-Soviet Russia: he also incorporates throughout the many fresh insights that are emerging from the wealth of new data and research now flooding out of Russia. New material is introduced into every chapter; those dealing with the late imperial and Soviet periods are substantially expanded; and analysis of the gripping but painful story of the Russian people is extended to the mid-1990s.

Russia: The Tsarist and Soviet Legacy (Present and the Past)

History

Russia

Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd

This text has established itself as the best general introduction to Russian history, providing a forceful and highly readable survey from earliest times to the post-Soviet State. At the heart of the book is the changing relationship between the State and Russian society at large. The second edition has been substantially rewritten and updated and new material and fresh insights from recently accessible research have been incorporated into every chapter.

Americas

Routledge

Russia (Longman Literature in English Series)

Europe

Longman Publishing Group

The framework of "Russia" is chronological, running from the original ninth century Russian state of Kiev through the rise and fall of Tsarism to the Revolution of 1917, and from the traumatic ordeal of Stalinism to the stabilization achieved in the post-war decades.

Russia (The Present and the Past)

Addison-Wesley

This study is an introduction to the momentous events of the Russian Revolution in 1917 with an analysis of the reasons behind the characteristic polarization of opinions concerning this momentous political event and why for some it is a milestone of human progress and for others, a catastrophic chapter in government oppression.

Rethinking the Russian Revolution (Reading History)

Bloomsbury Academic

For its admirers, the Russian Revolution is a milestone in human progress; for its critics, it is a catastrophe of monstrous proportions. Edward Acton's stimulating study combines an introduction to the momentous events of 1917 with an analysis of this controversy.

Rethinking the Russian Revolution (Reading history)

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

Distributed in the USA by Routledge, Chapman and Hall

This is the first volume of a new integrated documentary history of the Soviet Union. The Soviet story-the revolution, Lenin, Stalinism, the Great Patriotic War, the era of Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Cold War, and the dramatic collapse under Gorbachev-looms large in history syllabuses across the world. This book will be a valuable resource for students at all levels, drawing upon the primary material that has come to light since the collapse of Communist rule in 1991. Combining lucid narrative commentary and a rich selection of evocative documents, it provides a lively entrée to current debate over humanity's most momentous and tragic experiment. This volume is organised chronologically, subdivided thematically and incorporates over 200 documents. Key terms and references to individuals, places, events and institutions are explained and guidance provided on significant features of the primary sources. Conceived as companion to the highly-regarded, best-selling 4- volume Nazism 1919-1945: A Documentary Reader by Noakes &amp; Pridham, also published by UEP, it assumes no prior knowledge of the subject.

The Soviet Union: A Documentary History, Vol. 1: 1917-1940 (Exeter Studies in History)

Stableford, Tom

Liverpool University Press

The Soviet Union: A Documentary History Volume 2: 1939-1991 (Exeter Studies in History)

Volume Two of this new documentary history of the Soviet Union comprises over 270 documents and is organised into four chronologically distinct parts, subdivided thematically; it runs from the fraught diplomatic and military preamble of the Great Patriotic War to the final fracturing of the USSR along the national fault-lines of its 15 Union Republics. Slight overlap of chronological coverage with Volume One allows increased attention in Volume Two to foreign affairs. Areas in this volume that attract greatest student interest are the epic dramas at the beginning and end of the period - the Great Patriotic War and Perestroika.The commentary is by Edward Acton, Professor of Modern European History at the University of East Anglia, who has published widely on the Russian revolution and the history of Russia and the USSR. The documents have been translated by Tom Stableford, Assistant Librarian, Slavonic and East European Collections, Bodleian Library, Oxford.

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Books by Acton, Edward

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Acton, Edward. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Alexander Herzen and the Role of the Intellectual Revolutionary

Alexander Herzen and the Role of the Intellectual Revolutionary

Russia: The Tsarist and Soviet Legacy (Present and the Past)

Russia

Russia (Longman Literature in English Series)

Russia (The Present and the Past)

Rethinking the Russian Revolution (Reading History)

Rethinking the Russian Revolution (Reading history)

The Soviet Union: A Documentary History, Vol. 1: 1917-1940 (Exeter Studies in History)

The Soviet Union: A Documentary History Volume 2: 1939-1991 (Exeter Studies in History)