A powerful aspect of the prevailing view of the revolution – of the white and red contrast between good democratic liberals and evil Bolsheviks – is that it makes the past very simple. This simplicity, in turn, makes the past easier to understand and to express as moral lessons for our own time. The reality of 1917 is much more complex. The revolution of 1917 – any revolution for that matter – should be thought of as a kaleidoscope Patterns fall into place and then fall apart, and then become reassembled in different patterns. In order to stress this kaleidoscopic aspect of the revolution and to emphasize the many-layered reality of 1917, I shall draw upon my own work on Moscow's working class during the revolution.

When I set out to do a study of Moscow workers in 1917, I had three goals in mind. The first was to study the revolution as it happened away from Petrograd. Petrograd was a unique place: It was the center of political power, the home of the aristocratic elite, the most advanced industrial center in the country, and it was relatively near the eastern front of the world war. All these factors would surely affect the process of revolution in ways that might not be repeated elsewhere. So I turned to Moscow, not just for the sake of learning what happened in a different place, but also to understand why Moscow's experience was different, if indeed it was. In so doing, I hoped to add a new dimension to the history of 1917.