Mehring Books is pleased to announce the publication of Why Study the Russian Revolution? Volume I: The February Revolution and the Development of Bolshevik Strategy. It is available for online purchase at Mehring.com. Between February and October 1917, two monumental revolutions shook Russia. The first overthrew the Romanov autocracy that had ruled the country for more than 300 years. The second overthrew the bourgeois Provisional Government and established the first socialist workers state in history.
One hundred years after the Russian Revolution, the events of 1917 retain a burning contemporary relevance. All the great historical issues that motivated that revolutionary struggle—imperialist war, social inequality, political repression—are present today.
This volume includes lectures delivered by members of the International Committee of the Fourth International to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution. The first lecture, “Why Study the Russian Revolution,” by WSWS International Editorial Board Chairperson David North, explains the unique character of the revolution and its enduring significance.
The other lectures cover the 1905 Revolution in Russia, the causes and consequences of World War I, the February Revolution, and the impact of Lenin’s return to Petrograd in April 1917. The volume also includes several additional important lectures and essays on revolutionary theory and historical falsification.
The events and lessons of the most monumental event in world history must be studied by workers and young people all over the world. As David North states in the first lecture:
“There is not a single significant social problem that can be solved within the framework of capitalism. Indeed, the logic of capitalism and the nation-state system, which forms the basis of imperialist geopolitics, is leading inexorably to yet another global war, this time fought with nuclear weapons. Nothing can stop the descent into disaster but the renewal of the conscious struggle for world socialism. This, above all, is why it is necessary to study the Russian Revolution.”
Order your copy of Why Study the Russian Revolution? Volume 1 today at Mehring Books!