27 Oct 2016

Discussion: How much popular support did the Bolsheviks enjoy in 1917-1921?

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Thursday 27 October 2016, 6.30 pm at: Dreyfus Room (2.02), Birkbeck, University of London, 28 Russell Sq, London WC1B 5DQ.

Speaker: Steve Smith (University of Oxford).

Followed by questions and discussion

The period between February and October 1917 was remarkable for the extent of mobilization by workers, soldiers, peasants, nationalists and other groups. This tended to work in favour of the Bolsheviks up to the winter of 1917-18.  Thereafter much of this support ebbed away and rather rapidly. How far, if at all, was the Bolshevik victory in the civil war determined by popular support?

All welcome. Entrance free. Please RSVP on Eventbrite.

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This month’s speaker. Stephen Smith is Professor of History at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College. Previously he taught history at the University of Essex (1977-2008) and the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2008-12). He is author of Red Petrograd: Revolution in the Factories, 1917-18, The Russian Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, and of a new history of the Russian revolution to be published in 2017. In addition to modern Russia, his research interests are modern China and comparative Communism. His other books include Like Cattle and Horses: Nationalism and Labor in Shanghai, 1895-1927 and A Road is Made: Communism in Shanghai, 1920–27. See his university web page.

This talk is part of the Social Histories of the Russian Revolution series.

Workers at the Dinamo factory presenting banners to the 14th Siberian infantry regiment, 1917. Slogans include: “For freedom, equality and brotherhood”, “SR party. Land and freedom. You will get your rights in struggle”, “Universal education”, “Long live the international!”