Robert Service argues in Spies and Commissars that it was far from certain that the Bolshevik Revolution would endure and that its early years were marked by multidimensional interactions between Russia and the West. Lenin and Trotsky were intent on spreading their communist ideals to Europe and the rest of the world, whereas the Western powers were determined to prevent them. But by what means? The usual diplomatic routes to basic information had been closed off. 

The Hoover Institution and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies presented a screening of Age of Delirium: The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union on May 16, 2012, at 6:30 pm at the Fisher Conference Center in the Arrillaga Alumni Association Building on the Stanford campus.