I strongly recommend that you consult a general history of Russia for background reading. There are many available (and still more being published, following the centenary of the Russian revolution), but I particularly recommend the following:

Catherine Evtuhov, David Goldfrank, Lindsey Hughes, and Richard Stites, A History of Russia: Peoples, Legends, Events, Forces (Boston: Wadsworth Publishing, 2003).

Geoffrey Hosking, A History of the Soviet Union (William Collins, 2017).

Geoffrey Hosking, Russia: People and Empire: 1552–1917 (Fontana Press, 2010).

Ronald Suny, The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States (New York: OUP USA, 2010).

Paul Bushkovitch, A Concise History of Russia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

The following in Oxford University Press’s Very Short Introduction series are also useful:

Stephen Lovell, The Soviet Union: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2009).

Stephen A. Smith, The Russian Revolution: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2002).

Geoffrey Hosking, Russian History: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2012).

Peter Singer, Marx: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2000).

Finally, please take some time to explore the website Seventeen Moments in Soviet History, which we will be consulting regularly throughout this course. It is a treasure trove of documents, film clips, images and subject essays: please do take advantage!