Marx's Theory of Revolutions: March 2020

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Stalin in Petrograd

One hundred years ago today, plus three, the capital of Petrograd had become open to socialists who had been imprisoned or in exile. Josef Stalin was among the first to arrive.

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on the Dual Power here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link.

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Under House Arrest

One hundred years ago today, plus three, Tsar Nicolas, having abdicated the week before, was placed under house arrest and held with his family in the Winter Palace. This rendered the February Revolution virtually complete, but left the power largely in the hands of the big bourgeoisie.

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on the February Revolution here.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Pravda in Publication

One hundred years ago today, plus three, the Executive Committee of the Soviet having given its approval, Pravda, the news organ of the Bolshevik party, publishes its first number of the February Revolution. Vyacheslav Molotov was among its first editors.

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on the February Revolution here.

Friday, March 13, 2020

Provisional Committee

One hundred years ago today, plus three, after the unrest spread from the workers to the soldiers of the Petrograd garrison, things began to look more like a revolution. The bourgeois liberal parties, sensing an opportunity, formed a provisional “committee” – not quite a government yet – that would operate alongside the soviet of the workers.

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on the February Revolution here.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

General Strike

One hundred years ago today, plus three, the strike in Petrograd that the women had started becomes general. Hungry and frustrated with the war, a quarter of a million proletarians walk off the job.

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on the February Revolution here.

Sunday, March 8, 2020

International Women’s Day: 1917

One hundred years ago today, plus three, female textile workers in Petrograd celebrated International Women’s Day by going on strike. Their action set off a chain of events that led to the formation of a provisional government and the abdication of the tsar – in other words, to the February Revolution.

Read about it here. Or read the whole chapter on the February Revolution here.

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100 Years Ago Today, in Russia

The most recent entry is at the top, so the entries appear in reverse chronological order. Follow this link to the first post, February 27 – February 14, 1917: Last State Duma. Then click Newer Post at the bottom of the page to find the entries in chronological order.

Now (November 29) the entries from the beginning of the February Revolution to the end of the October Revolution have been compiled into chapters. The chapters are in chronological order and run five pages or more in length.

I have now (October 24) published a number of supplementary posts for items in the narrative that were omitted from the original chronology. The posts contain navigation permitting readers to follow them in chronological order. A link at the bottom of the previous post leads to the supplementary post next in the chronology, and a link at the bottom of the supplementary post leads forward in time from there.

Dates are given new style first, followed by old style (then in use in Russia). By 1917, the old style (Julian) dates were 13 days behind the new style (Gregorian) dates. The new style dates are in fact “100 years ago today” dates, but the old style dates gave rise to the terms “February Revolution” and “October Revolution” that describe the two most important stages of the 1917 Russian Revolution.

The principal sources are Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution, first published in 1930 after Trotsky had been exiled from Stalin’s Russia, and, for the October Revolution, the American journalist John Reed’s Ten Days that Shook the World, published in 1919.

About this Blog

The Theory of Revolutions is now the chronology of one particular revolution, the Russian Revolution that took place a hundred years ago.

Earlier entries, ending in 2013, apply the theory of revolutions to an analysis of the Arab Spring.

These are the cornerstones of the theory.

It’s Speculative Philosophy. It’s neither punditry nor social science, but really and only philosophy.

It uses Dialectical Logic. In a revolution, revolutionaries as subjective entities seek the negation of the objective conditions (some or all) formerly in existence. The movement generated by these subjective and objective moments in a revolution is termed “dialectical.”

Finally, it is Class Analysis. In other words, when people as economic beings find themselves in certain conditions, sometimes they vote, and sometimes they revolt.

Follow this link for a more nuanced explanation About This Blog. And visit Marx’s Political Economy for posts about domestic and local politics.