This study deals with the events of the Russian Revolution and the Civil War from 1917-1921. It provides a factual, chronological account of the main political events of the period, giving special attention to the February and October revolutions; explains the tensions within society that led to the popular upheavals of 1917; shows what had become of these social movements by the end of the Civil War period; provides an intellectual history of the Revolution, looking in particular at the inadequacy of universalist Bolshevik ideology in the face of the social and econmic circumstances of Russia; and looks at the nature of the sources that are depended upon for an understanding of the Revolution.