Russian Revolution of 1917: The Essential Reference Guide. Edited by Sean N. Kalic and Gates M. Brown. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2017. 257 pages. Acid-free $75.20 (ISBN 978-1-4408-5092-9). E-book available (978-1-4408-5093-6), call for pricing.

Kalic and Brown’s Russian Revolution of 1917 was one of a handful of works published last year undoubtedly to coincide with the centennial anniversary of the historic event which it considers. Anyone familiar with “Essential Reference Guides” from ABC-CLIO will find this relatively nimble tome (only 257 pages) to be another reliable entry in the series. Sandwiched between three introductory overview essays and an assorted collection of over twenty English translated letters, correspondences, and other assorted primary source materials are the main ingredients of nearly one hundred traditional A–Z subject entries.

The book is predominantly informed by a US post-war perspective, as indicated by such hallmarks as referring to the October Revolution as “really a coup d’etat” (109). The fact that Woodrow Wilson’s entry is longer than Bukharin’s, Trotsky’s, and nearly even Lenin’s is perhaps also unsurprising given that the primary editors both have affiliations with the US Army Command and General Staff College. As such, one looking for an ideological counterpart from last year’s aforementioned crop might consider Neil Faulkner’s A People’s History of the Russian Revolution (Pluto Press, 2017).

Nonetheless, entries are succinct and informative and are generally well suited to their stated heading. Nearly half of them are biographical in nature and are followed by entries devoted to either historical events such as the Tambov Rebellion, Bloody Sunday, and the Battle of Narva, or formal organizations including the likes of Cheka and Pravda. The choice of which groups to cover feels occasionally idiosyncratic: for example, there exists an entry for Mensheviks but no corresponding one for Bolsheviks. The introductory essays parse the chronology covered by the work into the distinct periods of the 1905 Revolution, the 1917 Revolution, and the Russian Civil War with roughly equal weight afforded all three. The primary source materials at the conclusion of the book are useful and provide greater context, but they are mostly reprints from widely available sources. This title, paired with Michael Hickey’s 2012 RUSA Outstanding Reference Source Competing Voices from the Russian Revolution (ABC-CLIO, 2010) might make for a complimentary two-volume set. In any case, this work is best suited for general undergraduate level collections or lower.—Chris G. Hudson, Director of Collection Services, Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio