On the Reasons and Meaning of Revolutions (Nikolai Rozov’s Version)

Nefedov S.A.,

leading researcher at the Institute of History and Archeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Professor, Ural Federal University, hist1@ya.ru

elibrary_id: 113166 | ORCID: 0000-0003-0136-5020 | RESEARCHER_ID: Q-1642-2015

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2019.06.12

Rubric: Reflecting on matters in print

For citation:

Nefedov S.A. On the Reasons and Meaning of Revolutions (Nikolai Rozov’s Version). – Polis. Political Studies. 2019. No. 6. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2019.06.12

Abstract

The article is devoted to the question of the laws of the revolutionary process, which is considered in Nikolai Rozov’s new book, Causes, Dynamics and Meaning of Revolutions. Rozov proposed a new definition of social revolution, which significantly expands the definitions proposed earlier by Teda Skocpol and Jack Goldstone. In particular, this definition allows unfinished and unsuccessful revolutions to be considered; for example, the Russian revolution of 1905 or the European revolutions of 1848 are discussed. Rosov's definition is convenient, as historians traditionally call these social crises "revolutions". However, on the other hand, this definition significantly expands the class of the objects under consideration, and this creates new difficulties in the search for common laws. Rosov points to one of these patterns, but in the case of a specific interpretation for the February revolution in Russia, it turns out to be uninformative.

Keywords

Nikolai Rozov, social revolution, theory of revolution, February revolution, causes of revolution.

Full Text

References

Goldstone J. 1991. Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Goldstone J. 2001. Towards a Fourth Generation of Revolutionary Theory. – Annual Review of Political Science. No. 4. Р. 139-187.

Goldstone J. 2014. Revolutions. A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Johnson Ch. 1982. Revolutionary change. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Skocpol T. 1979. States and Social Revolutions. A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-90400-9_118

Turchin P., Nefedov S. 2009. Secular Cycles. Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Poberezhnikov I.V. 2006. Perekhod ot tradicionnogo k industrial’nomu obshchestvu [The Transition from the Traditional to the Industrial Society]. Moscow: ROSSPEN.

Rozov N.S. 2019. Filosofiya i teoriya istorii. Kniga vtoraya. Prichiny, dinamika i smysl revolyucij [Philosophy and Theory of History. Book two. The Causes, Dynamics and Meaning of Revolution]. Moscow: URSS.

Content No. 6, 2019