Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution of 1917: Resources for scholars and revolutionaries

For those wanting to make use of Marxism to understand and change the world, among the most important classical thinkers are, surely, Rosa Luxemburg and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Lenin: Responding to catastrophe, forging revolution

Paul Le Blanc — The process of testing different perspectives and learning from actual struggles will be necessary on the way to creating a revolutionary party worthy of the name.

Lessons of Russia's October 1917 revolution (Part II) — What kind of revolutionary organisation?

Read Part I “Coup or mass insurrection?” here.

Lessons of Russia's October 1917 revolution (Part I) — Coup or mass insurrection?

"October is still ground zero for arguments about fundamental, radical social change.

‘Hegemony’ in the English translation of Trotsky’s ‘1905’

Seiya Morita — The English translation of Leon Trotsky’s “1905” is brilliant as a whole, but it has a problem, in particular when it comes to the translation of his repeated used of the term “hegemony”.

Another story of the Russian Revolution: Reading Judy Cox’s 'The Women's Revolution'

Seiya Morita — Judy Cox's 'The Women's Revolution' deftly reveals how important a role women revolutionaries, women Bolsheviks and women workers played in the Russian Revolution, its preparatory process, and in the civil war that followed.

The lost voice of Iulii Martov

Paul Kellogg — To students of twentieth-century Russian history, the name Vladimir Il’ich Lenin is a constant, and inevitable, presence. But the name Iulii Osipovich Tsederbaum—better known through the pseudonym “Iulii Martov”—is either entirely absent from view or present only as a mysterious, and often unsavoury, figure.

From mobilization to revolution: World War I in three slogans

How did World War I impact the Russian Revolution? Why did patriotic enthusiasm quickly give way to disillusionment? Or did the enthusiasm ever exist? Historian Konstantin Tarasov explains how the attitude towards war changed in Russian society as events unfolded.

Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement): The war and the future of Ukraine and the left movement

Sotsialnyi Rukh - The people of Ukraine have been facing hard challenges, yet they have proven their ability to fight for the right to decide on their own fate, and their determination to defend the country and to end the war as soon as possible. A party is needed to implement an alternative vision of Ukraine — democratic, social, and socialist.

What are the ‘right lessons’ for socialists? A reply to Eric Blanc

By Mike Taber

November 14, 2021 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from John Riddell's Marxist Essays and Commentary via World-Outlook — Eric Blanc is a serious and dedicated socialist historian and activist who doesn’t hesitate to jump into the fray and take positions he knows are controversial. Such an attitude is commendable, even if I disagree with his conclusions. His latest article, “Socialists Should Take the Right Lessons from the Russian Revolution” — published in Jacobin and reprinted on John Riddell’s website — is no exception and merits careful examination.

In his article Blanc aims to set the record straight on V. I. Lenin and the Russian Revolution, and to demolish the “myth of Bolshevik exceptionalism,” which he asserts is “wrong for our own time.” Instead, he seeks to establish the “right lessons” socialists should take from the history of the fight for “socialist transformation.”

Socialists should take the right lessons from the Russian Revolution