A brief chronicle of the major events directly related to the Russian Revolution. The account begins in 1861 with the abolition of serfdom in Russia and extends to the death of Lenin in January 1924.

At the same time, excerpts from Lenin's texts are presented—referring to the most critical moments and choices of that unparalleled context—alongside fragments of "parallel" references from Trotsky, Stalin, Martov, and other protagonists, as well as the key points of Luxemburg's critique.

The author's ambition is to provide a "user-friendly" yet not superficial approach that will encourage the reader to seek the connections and causal relationships that determined the fate of the social liberation movement in the past century. In this regard, it was deemed essential to present the parallel revolutionary developments in Germany during the period of 1917-1923.

By maintaining, as much as possible, a distance from certainties, fogs, and the distorting lenses of various "isms," this publication aims to be useful for all those who seek, in the difficult and the blind, their own Icarian flights. The book contains a large number of photographs from that era.