The Russian Revolution of 1917 marked an entire century. It gave rise to a societal and economic system that intended to be an alternative to the capitalist path of development and, in Stalinism, imposed a vast, violent modernization of the country that retains its effect until today. The emergence of the two great ideological camps that stood face-to-face in the "Cold War" – and in regional "hot wars" – restructured Europe and the world. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia's road to "the West" seemed unavoidable. But the country took a different turn — towards authoritarianism, state capitalism, and the attempt to re-establish Russia as an autonomous civilization and geopolitical pole, through which its political elite again intends to change the international order. The lecture series begins with the Russian Revolution of 1917 and its preparation as an historical scissure with far-reaching and up to today continuous effects. These long-lasting socioeconomic, political and cultural consequences shall be examined in the context of Russia's imperial history, but also understood as break that created new path-dependencies. The series' strong international perspective will naturally take in the global context of today's "Great Crisis" of capitalism. The lecture series is organized cooperatively by the Osteuropa-Institut of the Freie Universität Berlin (OEI) and the Berliner Zentrum für Osteuropa- und Internationale Studien (ZOiS) at the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.