Thread by @MysteryGrove

Here's a list of books to help you understand the Russian Revolution/early USSR.

First is the best survey of the topic, Sean McMeekin's The Russian Revolution: A New History. Gives a comprehensive overview to help you frame later deep dives.

amazon.com/Russian-Revolu…

Next is History's Greatest Heist, also by McMeekin. The book goes into greater detail about Bolshevik efforts to loot the Russian state and its private citizens.

Was one of the greatest destructions/transfer of wealth in history.

amazon.com/Historys-Great…

After that it's The Affirmative Action Empire, which details the efforts of the Bolsheviks and their successors to radically restructure the Russian state as something antagonistic toward the ethnic Russian majority.

amazon.com/Affirmative-Ac…

Then you have Thou Shalt Kill by Anna Geifman, which provides an incredible look at the psychological/social/political roots and evolution of revolutionary terrorism in the Russian Empire.

amazon.com/Thou-Shalt-Kil…

Fifth is Russian Civil Wars: 1916-1926, which provides a good overview of the actual combat that followed the October Revolution. It was basically a World War in miniature, though many of the conflicts are forgotten today.

amazon.com/Russian-Civil-…

Finally there's Stalin's War, which provides a radical new view of the lead-up to WW2 using Soviet archives, along with its aftermath (which saw nearly all of the victorious non-communist participants of the Russian Civil War swallowed up Soviets).

amazon.com/Stalins-War-Ne…

If you read these six books you'll probably have a much better understanding of the topic than most contemporary professors. At the very least, as an American it makes reading related memoirs/first-hand accounts more engaging as you'll have a good sense what's going on and why.