Leon Trotsky: The History of the Russian Revolution - Introduction by Alan Woods Shortly Wellred Books will be publishing a new edition of Trotsky’s masterpiece The History of the Russian Revolution. The year 2007 is the 90th anniversary of the October Revolution, an event that, from a Marxist point of view, was the greatest single event in history. Alan Woods has written a new introduction to the book which we publish here.
If you are serious about changing society, study revolutions! There are enormous lessons to be learned from the Russian Revolution. We therefore celebrate this key anniversary by publishing an article on the need for young people and trade unionists to study theory. We need to learn the lessons of the past in order not to repeat the mistakes in the future.
From the Preface to the History of the Russian Revolution “The masses go into a revolution not with a prepared plan of social reconstruction, but with a sharp feeling that they cannot endure the old régime. Only the guiding layers of a class have a political program, and even this still requires the test of events, and the approval of the masses.” (Leon Trotsky)
Religion in the Soviet Union This article written in 1945 analyses the relationship between the Soviet state and the Russian Orthodox Church. There was a clear dividing line between Lenin’s approach to this question and the zig-zag policy later adopted by Stalin. First published in Workers International News, October 1945.
Anniversary of the Russian Revolution Today marks the 88th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution. To commemorate this great historical event we remind our readers of some of the articles we have published on this. The Meaning of October by Alan Woods (November 1992) Russian revolution: 50 Years after by Ted Grant (November 1967)
On the 65th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky, a 1988 reminiscence from Jake Cooper Following our previous article on the 65th anniversary of the assassination of Leon Trotsky we publish this interview with Jake Cooper. He was one of Trotsky’s guards in Mexico who was present in the house at the time of the assassination.
Sixty-five years since Trotsky's Death Yesterday marked the 65th anniversary of the death of Leon Trotsky. He had been brutally struck down on August 20, 1940 by the hand of an assassin, an agent of Joseph Stalin, and rushed to hospital where he died at 7.25 p.m. the following day. He was sixty years old. On this commemoration, Rob Sewell takes a look at Trotsky’s life.
Stalin: 50 years after the death of a tyrant Fifty years ago today the world heard the news of the death of Stalin. For decades the Stalinist propaganda machine had assiduously encouraged the myth of Stalin as "the Lenin of today", who was supposed to have led the Bolshevik Party together with Lenin. But all this was merely a construction to justify the usurpation of power by a tyrant who destroyed Lenin's party, liquidated the political conquests of October and wrecked the Communist International.
The Makhno anarchists, Kronstadt and the position of the Russian peasants in post-revolutionary Russia As the old Soviet archives are opened up and studied, more material is being made available about what happened in Russia immediately after the revolution. Myths have been created about events like the Kronstadt “rebellion”, the peasant revolts, the anarchists, etc. The new material available confirms what Lenin and Trotsky explained about these events. In spite of all attempts to slander the Bolsheviks, the truth is always concrete.
The Trotskyists in Stalin's concentration camps - An eyewitness account of the strike at Vorkuta We remember all those thousands of genuine Communists who perished in Stalin’s camps, butchered simply for defending the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky. Old Bolsheviks like Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin were forced to confess to crimes they had not committed. These famous victims were only the tip of the iceberg. Not remembered are the thousands of Trotskyists who languished in brutal concentration camps. They were brave and defiant to the end.
The 1905 Revolution – marking the centenary The 9th January (22th January in the Gregorian calendar) marks the centenary of one of the greatest events of the twentieth century. The stormy events of 1905 formed the majestic prologue to the revolutionary drama of 1917, and were described famously by Lenin as the “dress rehearsal” for the October revolution. Revolution puts parties and individuals to the acid test and clarifies programmes, ideas and perspectives. In reality, the success of 1917 was due in very large measure to the experience acquired by the generation in the 1905 revolution.
"The Russian Revolution in Colour" On March 22 and 29, in two parts, the British Channel Five TV showed a documentary on the Russian Revolution entitled The Russian Revolution in Colour. Far from being an objective account of the events that took place in 1917, it belongs to that long series of cheap misrepresentation of historical fact. Its purpose is to present the revolution as a cunning plot of Lenin and the Bolsheviks intent on imposing a bloody dictatorship on the Russian masses. But as Lenin always said, "the truth is always concrete". Nadim al-Mahjoub looks at the distortions and lies and puts the record straight.
