Russian Revolution

Thirteen to two: Petrograd Bolsheviks debate the April Theses

The Russian Revolutions of 1917

By Paul Le Blanc Russian Revolutions of 1917

October 1917 and its relevance: A discussion with China Miéville

Eric Blanc interviews Chin

1917: The View from the Streets #16 & 17 - ‘Workers and soldiers: Everything is working in our favor’

July 22, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal / John Riddell's Marxist Essays and Commentary website — One hundred years ago this week, the Bolsheviks responded to the ‘July Days’ setback by calling on working people to ignore provocations and expose rightist slanders. The July demonstrations subsided quickly due to the Provisional Government’s success in painting the Bolsheviks as German-sponsored saboteurs of the Russian war effort; an upsurge in violence associated with the demonstrations; and news that loyal troops were on their way to Petrograd. The government quickly shut down Pravda, evicted the Bolsheviks from their party headquarters, and arrested many of their leaders. Lenin escaped arrest by going underground and fleeing in disguise to Finland. The two documents below represent the Bolsheviks’ responses to the rapidly developing situation. Selection, translation, and annotation by Barbara Allen

1917: The View from the Streets #14 & 15 - The 1917 July Days uprising: Soviet leadership clashes with ranks

July 16, 2017 — 

The Oath: The story of the Jewish Bund

Jewish Bund demonstration during the

'Letter from Afar', corrections from up close: Censorship or retrofit?

In March 1917 Alexandra Kollontai, then in Oslo, provided a link between Lenin,

1917: The View from the Streets #12 & 13 - A Bolshevik appeal finds an echo in the streets

The banners read: "World peace. All power to the people. All land to the people."
and "Down with the minister-capitalists"
June 22, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal / John Riddell's Marxist Essays and Commentary website — One hundred years ago today, on June 22 (9) 1917, the Bolshevik Party circulated among Petrograd workers the first proclamation below (drafted by Joseph Stalin). Nine days later, the Bolsheviks’ slogans won mass support at a giant Soviet-called demonstration.

The proletariat and its ally: The logic of Bolshevik ‘hegemony’

By Lars Lih

1917: The View from the Streets #10 & 11 - Soviet executive calls for peace - and renewed military offensives

 
Fraternization between Russian and German soldiers on the Eastern Front, World War I
 May 15, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal / John Riddell's Marxist Essays and Commentary website — One hundred years ago, on May 15 (2), 1917, the Executive Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies issued two appeals – one to all socialists of the world and the other to all soldiers at the front.

Pravda: ‘Mandate for Soviet Elections’

 

Introduction by John Riddell

April 2, 2017 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from John Riddell's Marxist Essays and Commentary website — The following declaration appeared 7 May 1917 on the front page of the Bolshevik newspaper Pravda under the title, Draft of a mandate for use in electing delegates to the Soviet of Worker and Soldier Deputies. This Mandate marked the first appearance of the slogan “All power to the soviets” in an official party statement. Its purpose was to help the soviet constituency distinguish genuine revolutionary candidates from revolutionaries in name only.

A revolutionary line of march: ‘Old Bolshevism’ in early 1917 re-examined

 
Lev Kamenev reading Pravda

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