Conclusion

Abstract

In The Nature of Revolution, Carleton Beals wrote, ‘Like birth and death, revolution is violent change. Mostly an ugly process, it wears the visage of hope for a better, juster (sic) world, to achieve for which no sacrifice is too great.’¹ Revolution arises out of a hope for human perfection, and out of the belief that with determination and faith, Utopia is possible.² In the case of Russia after 1917, those who desired change had a formidable task before them. A wealthy élite had, prior to the revolution, sat atop a giant festering mass of humanity which was growing increasingly aware of its own discontent. This discontent gathered itself and exploded, manifesting in the youthful revolutionary generation of 1917.