In his lecture on March 11, David North answers the question with 10 reasons, followed by a summary of the main events from the February revolution to the October seizure of power by the Bolshevik Party. North’s presentation was the first of five lectures in the ICFI series commemorating the centenary of the Russian Revolution. The lecture is now available as a pamphlet from Mehring Books.
Reason One: The Russian Revolution was the most important, consequential and progressive political event of the twentieth century. …
Reason Two: The Russian Revolution, culminating in the conquest of political power by the Bolshevik Party in October 1917, marked a new stage in world history. …
Reason Three: The October Revolution substantiated, in practice, the materialist conception of history as formulated by Marx and Engels in the Communist Manifesto . …
Reason Four: The objective development of the Russian Revolution substantiated the strategic perspective first elaborated by Leon Trotsky between 1906 and 1907, known as the theory of permanent revolution. …
Reason Five: The seizure of power by the Bolshevik Party in October 1917 and the establishment of the first workers state inspired an immense development in the class consciousness and political awareness of the working class and oppressed masses throughout the world. …
Reason Six: In its struggle against imperialist war, the Bolshevik Party proved, in theory and in practice, that socialist internationalism is the essential foundation of revolutionary strategy and the practical struggle for power. …
Reason Seven: The Russian Revolution demands serious study as a critical episode in the development of scientific social thought. …
Reason Eight: The development of Bolshevism as a political tendency and the exceptional role that it played in the tumultuous events of 1917 vindicated the essential significance of the struggle waged by Marxists against opportunism and its political sibling, centrism. …
Reason Nine: The Bolsheviks provided the working class with an example of what a genuine revolutionary party is, and the irreplaceable role of such a party in securing the victory of the socialist revolution. …
Reason Ten: The experience of the crucial months between February and October 1917 provides an invaluable insight into strategic and tactical problems the working class will encounter during a new and inevitable upsurge of revolutionary struggle. …
The pamphlet is available here.