The Russian Revolution 1917—1921

From the Fall of the Tsar to the “October Revolution,” February-November, 1917

Is another world possible? We see today numerous examples of mass action disrupting societies: the Arab Spring, the Movement of the Squares, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, etc. We know that mass movements can destabilize and bring down governments. The larger question is, can mass action create something new? Can it change the world? In 1917, the Russian people thought so!

Whatever you may think or have heard, it cannot be denied that the 1917 Russian Revolution moved millions of people to political action intended to create a better world. Russian workers and peasants overthrew their government, defeated a counterrevolution, and embarked on one of the most radical experiments in mass democracy ever undertaken. To gain a deeper understanding of these events that did change the world, the MEP Revolutions Study Group will spend this fall and next spring studying the Russian Revolution, 1917-1921, debating its successes and its failures in terms of the ideals and purposes of the revolutionary movement.

The fall term will bring the class to the establishment of a government based on the soviets (workers councils) in November 1917, with emphasis on the rising influence of the Bolshevik Party. The spring term will cover the new Soviet state through the period of civil war to the consolidation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Members of our group come to these studies with differing Left political perspectives. Our goal is not to confirm a “correct” point of view, but to refine all our understandings of this history to inform our political praxis. All viewpoints are welcome.

The Revolutions Study Group (originally at the Brecht Forum) has been meeting since 2009. While individual participants may come and go, the group has held together, studying in depth a range of history including the French Revolution, the Mau-Mau Revolt, the Haitian Revolution, the European Revolutions of 1848, the Italian Autonomia, the Spanish Civil War, the Mexican Revolution, the Socialist (2nd) International, and the 1905 Russian revolution and Russian Social Democracy prior to World War I.