By YURI SHAKHIN and PHIL WILAYTO In the midst of an intense campaign of Russia-bashing by Western governments and the mainstream media, anti-imperialists are understandably reluctant to join in by criticizing the Russian government. At the same time, when that government abuses its authority by trying to stifle progressive dissent, it’s necessary to speak out.…
By JEFF MACKLER This is the second part of a series of articles. Part I appeared in the October 2017 issue of Socialist Action. The Russian Revolution of Oct. 25, 1917 (Nov. 7 in the new calendar) remains the seminal event in modern human history, if for no other reason that it marked the first…
By JEFF MACKLER Leon Trotsky, co-leader with Vladimir Lenin of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, famously argued that the “Russian Question” was key to the standing of every party on earth that claimed allegiance to the heritage of revolutionary socialist politics. To this day, 100 years after Lenin’s Bolshevik Party led the world’s first…
By ANN MONTAGUE In August, Ali Feruz was sentenced in a night court in Russia to be deported to Uzbekistan. He will spend time waiting for his appeal in a new prison for foreigners in Moscow, often known as the Russian Guantanamo. His parents and siblings are all Russian citizens. He had returned to Uzbekistan…
By ANN MONTAGUE On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, many people are rereading the history of the revolution that brought forth the very first worker’s state in history. Since 1991, however, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics no longer exists. The former USSR has splintered into 15 independent capitalist states. The Russian Federation…
By CHRISTINE MARIE and ANN MONTAGUE This is a particularly important moment to be considering the meaning of the Russian Revolution for women, LGBTQI activists, and gender politics. We have seen the protests against the Misogynist in Chief by more than 3 million U.S. women being channeled into clubs to rebuild the Democratic Party in…
