Mensheviks and Bolsheviks 1917 – 1923

Why did the Russian revolution turn out the way it did? How did Russian revolutionaries themselves perceive their revolution? What were the alternative visions of revolution, socialism and the future of the Russian empire propounded in 1917? This talk focuses on the Menshevik wing of Russian social-democracy – the losing faction in 1917 – and explores how their preconceived schemas of revolution locked them into a political course which proved disastrous.

Francis King lectures in modern European history at the University of East Anglia. He is also editor of Socialist History, co-editor of European History Quarterly and a translator. He has a long-standing interest in the Bolsheviks’ rivals and enemies within Russian socialism, and recently published a translation of a memoir of the Russian civil war period by the Menshevik leader Fedor Dan. (Fedor Il’ich Dan, Two Years of Wandering: a Menshevik leader in Lenin’s Russia, Lawrence and Wishart, London, 2016).

Doors 10.30. Start 11.00

Entry £3, £2 concessions.(free to Conway Hall Ethical Society members – no tickets needed).

Brockway Room (Ground floor).

Tea, coffee & biscuits will be available.