This work investigates the core question of whether Bolshevism functioned as a localized Russian political movement or as a coordinated international threat aimed at global revolution. Paul Miliukov, a prominent Russian historian and politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Russian Provisional Government, utilizes his firsthand experience and extensive knowledge of European diplomatic history to analyze the spread of Bolshevik ideology. He argues that the movement was inherently expansionist, seeking to dismantle existing national structures through a doctrine of international class warfare. The text serves as a contemporary critique of the geopolitical instability following the First World War and the October Revolution.

Historians and political scientists frequently cite this text as a primary source for understanding the anti-Bolshevik perspective during the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Readers often note the dense, polemical nature of the prose, which reflects the high-stakes political climate in which the author was writing.