Marx's Theory of Revolutions: May 2020

Monday, May 18, 2020

Coalition Government

One hundred years ago today, plus three, some but not all of the socialist parties were invited, and were willing, to join the coalition government being formed after a couple bourgeois liberal Cadet ministers resigned from the provisional government. Alexander Kerensky, a Social Revolutionary, got promoted to the War Ministry. The Bolsheviks had opposed this compromise in the Executive Committee of the Soviet.

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

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Trotsky Arrives

One hundred years ago today, plus three, after a sea voyage of about three weeks from Canada, Leon Trotsky arrived in Petrograd and raised his voice against socialist participation in the provisional government. Ironically, the former Foreign Minister Miliukov had requested his release from British detention, losing his post as the new government formed.

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

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Miliukov Resigns

One hundred years ago today, plus three, Pavel Miliukov, a leader of the bourgeois liberal Cadet party, responded to the outcry about his war policy favoring annexations by resigning his post as Foreign Minister in the Provisional Government. Among other things, this opened the door to increased participation of the socialist parties in a true coalition government.

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

Thursday, May 7, 2020

The Bolsheviks Confer

One hundred years ago today, plus three, the Bolsheviks kicked off an all-Russia party conference. See what Lenin had to say and find a link to one of the resolutions adopted by the conference here.

Read the whole chapter on the April Theses here. Or read the whole story from the beginning by following this link.

Monday, May 4, 2020

Divided Government

One hundred years ago today, plus three, as the demonstrations of the April Days continued and counter-demonstrations grew up, the Executive Committee of the Soviet met with the ministers of the Provisional Government to try to figure out what to do. Turns out, divided government was no more effective then than it is now.

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

Sunday, May 3, 2020

April Days in May

One hundred years ago today, plus three, the Julian calendar still prevailing in Petrograd, Foreign Minister Miliukov’s luck began to turn when his note to the British and French demanding the annexation of the Dardanelles (then as now part of Turkey on the geographical boundary between Europe and Asia) turned up in print. For the next three days, tens of thousands of soldiers and workers demonstrated against Miliukov and his policy of annexation.

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

Friday, May 1, 2020

May Day in April

One hundred years ago today, plus three, it was still April 18 in Russia, because Russia was still on the Julian (old style) calendar. The soviets celebrated May Day, International Socialist Labor Day, along with the rest of the world anyway.

Meanwhile Foreign Minister Miliukov, of the bourgeois Cadet party, was pursuing a plot that, when they found out about it, the people didn’t like.

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

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.