The start -- The "dress rehearsal" -- Last hopes -- War and revolution -- The February Revolution -- Lenin's revolution -- Civil War and the making of the Soviet system -- Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin -- The revolution's golden age? -- The great break -- Stalin's crisis -- Communism in retreat? -- The great terror -- Revolution for export -- War and revolution -- Revolution and Cold War -- The beginning of the end -- Mature socialism -- The last bolshevik -- Judgement.

Presenting a new perspective on the Russian Revolution, a noted historian traces three generational phases to show how the revolution, while it changed in form and character, retained the same idealistic goals throughout.