How did Soviet historians interpret modern Russian history? Focusing on the career of the Soviet historian M.N. Pokrovskii, James D. White examines the evolution of historical writing in the first decade of Soviet rule.

As Deputy People's Commissar for Education, Pokrovskii was among those who established the academic institutions of the new regime. The study of Pokrovskii's writings and the political context in which they were conceived helps explain the origin of interpretations of modern Russian history in Soviet times. This book serves as a preliminary guide to the study of the Russian revolutionary era, and as a key text in the critical evaluation of the historical sources of the period.