This guide identifies resources relevant to the VCE History - Revolutions units
The Russian Revolution is often broken into two distinct timeframes: the Revolution of 1905 and the Revolution of 1917 (which was in turn two separate uprisings occurring one after another). Although the Empire survived the 1905 Revolution, a period of considerable unrest followed until the Soviet government was announced in 1917 (and beyond). It is important to be aware of the social and political climate before the Revolution, which can help shine a light on the causes of the conflict; as well as the societal conditions in the aftermath of Revolution.
Area of study 1 - Causes - spans the period from the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896 through to the announcement of the Soviet government on 26 October 1917. Area of study 2 - Consequences - covers the period from 1917 to 1927.
For simple, broad overviews of the Russian Revolution try the Oxford Reference: History database. Alpha History also has a very useful Russian Revolution timeline.
The Library has a number of ebooks considering issues around the Russian Revolution. Most of these can be accessed online using your State Library Victoria member number.
Before you begin a search of our catalogue, make sure to read the Catalogue tab of this guide for a basic understanding of how to search.
To search our ebook collection, set the drop-down menu to the right of the search box to 'ebooks'. You can search your keywords anywhere in the record, or search more specifically within the subject as we have done in the example below:
Note that some of our ebooks can only be read onsite at the Library, either on one of our bookable public PCs, or on your own device connected to our wifi.
If you find a title that is particularly useful you can also search for similar books by clicking on the Subjects linked under the Details heading of the record. Remember to also search for works on Russia in the period before the Revolution for context.
The Russian Revolution : the fall of the Tsars and the rise of Communism by 
Russian Revolution of 1917: the Essential Reference Guide by The Library subscribes to a wide range of databases, most of which you can view from home with your free SLV membership.
Filter the database list by subject to see all of our History databases or Historic Newspaper databases.
Search full-text scholarly journals on all subjects published from 1700 up until 1–5 years ago. Articles published before 1923 in United States journals, or before 1870 elsewhere, are freely accessible.
Cross-search several British newspaper archives, including 19th Century British Newspapers, The Times Digital Archive, The Sunday Times, The Times Literary Supplement and The Illustrated London News.
Access the complete content of the London Times, fully searchable and viewable as images.
Once you have chosen a database, you will need to search it by keyword. Use Simple or Basic Search for specific information, or consider Advanced Search when searching several interrelated concepts. Remember that you can filter your results by the kind of resource, or by the year of publication.
Consider doing the following:
An example of an Advanced search from the JSTOR database is shown in the side panel of this guide.
Here are examples of some articles that can be found on specific issues of the Russian Revolution, the causes and the aftermath.
These articles can be contradictory as different historians interpret the evidence of events in different ways. The articles will also have footnotes and bibliographies that can lead to further articles.
These are just a few examples of articles you can find using our databases and Article search through our Library catalogue.
Ascher, Abraham. The Kornilov Affair. The Russian Review, vol. 12, no. 4, 1953, pp. 235–252.
White, James D. The Kornilov Affair. a study in counter-revolution Soviet Studies, vol. 20, no. 2, 1968, pp. 187–205.
Search newspaper databases like Trove and Gale news Vault. Narrow to specfiic years or ranges of dates.
EuroDocs' Russian Revolution, Civil War and USSR 1917-1991 webpage includes an excellent and extremely extensive collection of links to digitised primary sources
A collection of Russian Revolution documents and primary sources.
Try this search for holdings at the Library containing primary documents:
These items will mainly be in print, and only available at the Library (not online).
Check out some digitised contemporary pamphlets putting forward different views on the Russian Revolution.
For online primary sources, try the World War I and Revolution in Russia. 1914-1918 collection from the Archives Unbound database (see Databases box above)
This is a database available via the A-Z Databases page. See the box on Databases above.
Explore the House of Commons sessional papers as full page searchable images covering more than 200 years. This resource includes: Houses of Commons and Lords Hansard, the Official Report of debates in Parliament (1803-2005); Command Papers (1833-2004); Bills and Acts (1801-2004).
These are British Government reports from the time. They include many eyewitness accounts. There may be other documents on this database that are of interest, but see the below:
Newspaper resources
Newspaper archives will be held in some of the collections above, and also in our database collection. See the box on Databases above.
Russia - calm, steadfast, and mighty, H99.166/258
SLV has a range of physical books relating to the Russian Revolution. Many will be in storage, but some will be available on the shelf in the Redmond Barry Reading Room.
Perform a catalogue search using the Books scope. You can Ask a Librarian for assistance if you need to order an item from storage. Alternatively, use the Find on Shelf search scope to limit results to books you can read immediately. Note that SLV is not a lending library; books are to be read onsite at the Library.
To browse the shelves, try the range from 947.083 (Russian and Slavic History: Nicholas II, 1894-1917) to 947.084 (Russian and Slavic History: Communist period, 1917-1953). European History will be upstairs in the Redmond Barry Reading Room mezzanine.
Analysing the Russian Revolution by 
War and Revolution in Russia, 1914-22 : the collapse of tsarism and the establishment of Soviet power by 
The Russian Revolution : the essential readings by 
The Russian Revolution, 1900-1927 by 
Ekaterinburg : the last days of the Romanovs by Note that there will be other books on the Russian Revolution held in other parts of the Library. For instance, books that are more focused on labor economics in Russia will be held at 331.0947, while books relating to Russian political parties will be at 324.247.
An example of how to perform an Advanced Search in a database. Here we are searching for information on the Sons of Liberty during the American Revolution in JSTOR. Other databases will have similar features.
