The Russian Revolution of 1917 thrilled millions around the world and showed that socialism was possible.

Sandra Bloodworth brings to life the struggle of the workers, soldiers and peasants against their oppressors. She shows how the vast masses of working people learnt, through the experience of fighting for their demands, that if they did not definitively defeat the capitalist class, the only alternative would be counter-revolution and military dictatorship. They learnt that they could run society themselves, through the revolutionary soviets, and that they would have to do so in order to end the world war, to win bread for starving families and to liberate the enslaved peasantry.

This book is an essential introduction to one of the greatest moments in human history. Bloodworth dispels the persistent myths propagated by the revolution's opponents - that it was a bloody coup, or that Stalin's dictatorship was the only possible outcome. She instead reveals the revolution as an inspiring experiment in human liberation, full of lessons for anyone fighting for a better world today.