Tony Rocchi

Tony Rocchi04.10.2025

From Multi-Party State to One-Party State: the disintegration and collapse of non-Bolshevik parties and movements in the Russian Revolution. The former Russian Empire was the most multi-party country in Europe. However, by the early 1920s, the Soviet Union, its successor state, had become Europe’s biggest one-party state. The history of how the Bolsheviks or Communists […]

Tony Rocchi22.09.2025

Nobody really ruled Russia between the February and October Revolutions of 1917. A governmental and legal vacuum opened in Russia in 1917 with the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II in the February Revolution. Neither the Provisional Government nor the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies showed much enthusiasm in establishing themselves as rulers of […]

Tony Rocchi09.09.2025

Every European revolution had a counter-revolution. Russia in 1917 was a huge exception to this historical pattern because there was no counter-revolution in the former Russian Empire between the February and October Revolutions of 1917. In fact, the conditions for a counter-revolution were completely absent. Russian revolutionaries prided themselves on their understanding of revolutions of […]

Tony Rocchi02.07.2025

What makes terrorism in the Russian Empire between 1866-1911 somewhat unique in the history of European and world terrorism was the massive sympathy and support terrorists received from many members of educated society. Thousands of law-abiding people in the Russian Empire could always justify left-wing terrorism or support terrorists by providing them with money or […]

Tony Rocchi13.04.2025

When we try to determine the place of terrorism in the Russian Empire between 1866-1911 in the history of global terrorism, terrorism in Russia takes on a new dimension of being terrorism in its purest form. More and more, scholars and publicists group terrorists under the general category of “non-state armed actors” and call terrorism […]

Tony Rocchi25.12.2024

Political terrorism in the Russian Empire is still a very painful subject for many people in today’s Russia. The reasons for these painful thoughts about terrorism vary. For some people, the sheer enormity of the number of victims—17,000 people killed or wounded between 1901-1911. Other people are shocked by the duration of terrorism between 1866-1911 […]

Tony Rocchi05.11.2024

World War One was the catalyst that made possible the speedy collapse of the Russian state and society after the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II in the February Revolution of 1917. All sectors of society in the Russian Empire underwent major changes both on the war front and on the home front from 1914 to […]

Tony Rocchi29.10.2024

The tumultuous eight months between the February and October Revolutions of 1917 witnessed many types of violence, but terrorism and even state violence were not among them. Instead, the lands of the former Russian Empire were rocked by many incidents of mass violence from below. Politically motivated killings often happened during 1917, but political parties […]

Tony Rocchi05.10.2024

One of the greatest unknowns about the history of the Russian Revolution and Civil War of 1917-1922 is the extent of political terrorism during these years. There were many terrorist attacks and politically motivated killings during the Revolution of 1917-1922. Note that historians now tend to combine the February and October Revolutions of 1917 and […]

Tony Rocchi19.09.2024

Leo-Tolstoy-as-the-mirror-of-the-Russian-revolution.jpg

The year 1908 was somewhat pivotal for Leo Tolstoy, the world’s greatest writer. In that year, Tolstoy wrote «I Cannot Be Silent» in which he condemned the government for using violence against revolutionaries and ordinary people during the Revolution of 1905-1907. As Tolstoy wrote: “You say the atrocities committed by the revolutionaries are terrible. I […]

From Multi-Party Russia to One-Party State

Reluctant Rulers in Russia, February to October 1917

Why Was There No Counter-Revolution in Russia in 1917?

How Russian Educated Society Enabled Terrorism in the Empire

Political Terrorism in its Purest Form: Terrorism in the Russian Empire

Coming Face to Face with Terrorism in the Russian Empire

Brave New World: Russian Society in 1917

Terrorism in the Year 1917: a Conspicuous Absence

Terrorism in the Revolution of 1917-1922: an even greater unknown

Tolstoy and the Culture of Violence in the Russian Empire

Will Trump Give “Tomahawks” to Ukraine?

Trump vs Mayor of Chicago and Illinois Governor

6 Lutheran Churches in Russia

Matviyenko is Striving to Reduce Russia’s Population