russian revolution

The Revolution of 1917

Today – November 7, 2017 – is the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1917. In February of that year, the working class and peasantry – along with the soldiers – overthrew the Tsar’s regime. That October (November in our calendar), led by the Bolshevik party, the workers and peasants completed their social revolution by overthrowing the conciliatory government of the bourgeoisie led by Alexander Kerensky. Lenin, who had returned to Russia from exile, saw that behind Kerensky[...]

The Russian Revolution Is Still Relevant Today

Brinda Karat with Aleida Guevara March, veteran of Cuba’s medical brigades and daughter of Che. The upcoming 7th November will mark the 100 years of the Russian Revolution. The Russian Revolution changed the course of history in many ways. In what is remarked as one of the most significant events of the 20th century, the ordinary Russians took control of the stage to overthrow the provisional government and established a rule of the proletariat. Various organizations around the world have o[...]

Getting to know the ‘Bolsheviks’

In the cities of colonial India, caught in the vortex of war-time/post-war scarcity and political repression, how did the colonizers and a segment of their literate middle-class subjects perceive and depict the Bolshevik Revolution through newspaper pages? In the course of November 1917, the colonial world became gradually acquainted with Bolshevism through hostile news networks based in the West. In Kolkata, the former capital of British Empire in India until 1912 and the provincial cap[...]

The Revolution of Ordinary People: Russia, 1917

Lenin did not make the Revolution in 1917. Nor did Stalin. Nor Trotsky. They each provided crucial leadership, with Lenin’s role being essential from April 1917 onwards. But they were part of a tidal wave that had first risen in 1905, crested and then rose again during the Great War. This tidal wave was lifted by ordinary people – factory workers, landless peasants, housewives, soldiers, students and those who barely found the means to survive. It is they who made the Revolution happen in [...]

Letter to Our LeftWord Community (May 2017)

Dear Comrades and Friends, We are now in the midst of 2017 – the centenary year of the Russian Revolution. The Soviet Union, which was built after the Revolution, lasted a mere seventy years. This is far too short a time in the span of human history to make any kind of judgment about either socialism or communism.  Great strides were made, certainly, but there were also grievous wrongs. Two of our new books offer a sense of the Revolution and of the USSR: Cecilia Bobrovskaya’s Rank and [...]