The Modern Scholar

The Russian Revolution: From Tsarism to Bolshevism

By: Prof. Jonathan D. Smele

Narrated by: Prof. Jonathan D. Smele

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a key turning point in the history of modern Europe and the world. For much of the 20th century, politics were defined by attitudes to what had taken place in Russia in 1917. To understand the Russian Revolution, then, is to understand a key building block of modern history and the contemporary world.

Senior lecturer and renowned Russian researcher Dr. Jonathan Smele sheds new light on the many forces that came to bear in tsarist Russia, from the emancipation of the serfs in the mid-19th century to the climactic revolutions of the early 20th century that brought the small Bolshevik party to power.

©2009 Jonathan D. Smele (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

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greta

I though the book was well written. A lot of thought went into it. I came a way with a great appreciation to the Russian history of the revolution and the underlining events that set things off. I great book that I would recomend to anyone who wants a in depth well written history book on Russia

Valuable history lesson hobbled by uneven delivery

The content is fine I guess, but the way that the professor moves through the material I cannot see the history coming alive. The professor makes awkward pauses in the.. middle of this sentences in such... a way as to take the listener out of the story. I have enjoyed dozens of courses on a bunch of subjects on Audible and this is the only one I did not find myself captured by.

Poorly read, disappointing

I am a few chapters in, and this is very hard to listen to. The narration is awkward, with odd pauses injected into the middle of sentences. It doesn't sound like natural speech, and the choppy, "bursty" presentation makes an already-wordy composition seem even more tedious. The content was distracting, too: rather than just telling the story, it came across like a series of debate points.

Disappointed

This is a very complicated period in history, and I'm wracking my brain to understand, but with the double whammy of a very difficult narrator and incomplete notes, it's been a real struggle. Complicated Russian names are mentioned in passing and nowhere in the notes. A transcript of the lesson would have been most helpful so I could fill in some of the blanks. I really want to like this and more importantly to learn, but I may have to return to The Great Courses.