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Historian

 

Dr. Ian Thatcher , Reader in Modern History, Brunel University

Podcasts by Ian Thatcher

Podcasts on Russian History

 

DVD

GBP 14.99

Synopsis

 

Soviet and Western historiography has for long identified Lenin as the most influential figure in explaining how the October Revolution of 1917 took place. This follows a comment in Trotsky’s diary of 1935 that the October Revolution would have occurred without him but only on condition that Lenin was present. This talk outlines how recent scholarship has re-evaluated Lenin’s role: he failed to prevent the February Revolution, the April Theses joined an already existing debate rather than marked a completely new point of view, State and Revolution is no guide to how the Bolshevik government developed, and it is Trotsky not Lenin who organised the October Revolution. It is only be demolishing the Lenin myth that we move closer to understanding the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Further Reading

 

For further reading see:

James D. White's excellent and very revisionist Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution (2001).
Neal Harding's Lenin's Political Thought (1983) remains the best exposition of Lenin's writings, including those of 1917.

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