In October 1917, the workers, with support of the poor peasants, took power in Russia. The ruling minority were out of power. For the first and only time in history, the majority of people were in charge of a country. In the February revolution, as in all revolutions, the mass of people entered the stage […]
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This is the seventh in our series on the events of 1917. Dates are given in the old style Julian calendar used in Russia at the time. This was 13 days earlier than the Gregorian calendar (adopted in Russia in 1918). The Bolshevik party still faces state repression, many of its leaders in prison or […]
Continue ReadingBelow we look at the events of July and August 1917 in Russia. Dates are given in the old style Julian calendar used in Russia at the time. This was 13 days earlier than the Gregorian calendar (adopted in Russia in 1918). The economy is in crisis, with inflation out of control and workers thrown […]
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Vincent Kolo is a contributor to chinaworker.info. A century ago this week, 500,000 workers and soldiers marched through the Russian capital Petrograd, with tens of thousands joining marches in Moscow, Kiev and other cities. The demonstrations on 1 July (18 June according to Russia’s old calendar), called by the pro-government socialist parties who at that […]
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Niall Mulholland is a member of the Committee for a Workers’ International. May and June: Provisional Government weak but revolutionary movement not yet able to take power The situation is one of dual power: the weakness of the Provisional Government is becoming increasingly clear; the revolutionary movement not yet able to take control. Right-wing social […]
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Edmund Schluessel is a member of Sosialistinen Vaihtoehto (CWI in Finland). Review of Dan Healey’s book: Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia The socialist October Revolution in 1917 brought about fundamental, thoroughgoing changes in Russian society. Millions of people in the largest country on Earth quickly found themselves far freer than they had ever been under the […]
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Paula Mitchell is a member of the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales). On 3 April 1917, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from exile. Lenin’s arrival turned the Bolshevik party upside down and changed the course of history. Just weeks earlier, demanding an end to the bloody slaughter of World War One, the masses of […]
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Igor Yasin is a member of Sotsialisticheskaya Alternativa (CWI in Russia). Reports of gay men being detained, tortured and killed by officials under the control of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, have hit headlines around the world and provoked anger and protests from LGBT, democratic rights and socialist activists. The Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, reported that […]
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As a new generation of women move into struggle, Christine Thomas looks back at the life and ideas of the Russian revolutionary, Alexandra Kollontai, a pioneer of the struggle for socialism and women’s liberation. Alexandra Kollontai is probably the best-known woman among Russian revolutionaries, the first woman elected as a full member of the Bolshevik […]
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The February revolution in Russia, started by women striking on International Working Women’s Day, quickly pushed aside the Tsar. The main demands were Bread, Peace and Down with the Autocracy (feudal dictatorship). The next nine months were a living struggle around these slogans. A revolution is not an event; it is a process. Two Opposing […]
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