Beginning of Essay
The abdication of Emperor Nicholas II in March 1917, in conjunction with the establishment of a provisional government based on Western principles of constitutional liberalism, and the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in November, are the political focal points ....

Middle of Essay
.... civil war against dissident socialists, anti-Bolshevik "White Guards," foreign intervention, and anarchist peasant bands. Finally, one must see the psychological aspects of revolutionary change: elation and hope, fear and discouragement, and ultimately the prolonged agony of bloodshed and privation, both from war and repression, and the "bony hand of Tsar Hunger," who strangled tens of thousands and, in the end, brought the revolutionary period to a close after the civil war by forcing the Bolsheviks to abandon the radical measures of War Communism in favor of a New Economic Policy (NEP). Throughout, the events in Russia were of worldwide importance. ....