People keep saying this, and it isn't true. 1917 surprised MARXISTS, because it did not correspond to their a priori schemata. It did not surprise the Tsarist government or secret police, which had been terrified of revolution since, oh, the Decembrists. 1917 took place 12 years after another revolution, a decade-plus period of time that saw civil unrest in the Russian Empire that killed _thousands of people_, and after a giant war. Oh, and after decades of agitation and assassination by various revolutionary groups. Yup, no way anybody could see that coming.
--- On Tue, 4/7/09, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
It is the same mistake
> that was made
> in 1789, again in 1848, and again in 191`7. These
> revolutions, too,
> surprised almost everyone,