History
Seventy years since the communal Partition of South Asia
By Keith Jones, 16 August 2017
The Partition was one of the great crimes of the 20th century—a crime that has shaped, or more precisely deformed, the entire subsequent history of South Asia.
German professor promotes World War I military figures as models
By Sven Heymanns, 9 August 2017
In a guest contribution for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Professor Ralph Rotte declares that Germany’s armed forces should look to World War I for their role models.
This week in the Russian Revolution
July 31—August 6: The nightmare in Flanders
31 July 2017
Perhaps more than any other battle in world history, the Third Battle of Ypres will endure for generations as a symbol of pointless and fratricidal barbarism. While popular moods continue to turn against the war, counterrevolution is in full swing in Russia.
From the archives of the Russian Revolution
Letter to the Provisional Government
By Leon Trotsky, 31 July 2017
This is a new translation of an open letter Trotsky addressed to the Provisional Government on the arrest of Bolshevik leaders, which took place during the crackdown that followed the July Days.
This week in the Russian Revolution
July 24—July 30: Counterrevolution rears its head
24 July 2017
Following the suppression of the July Insurrection, a “government of national safety” with unlimited repressive powers is announced in Petrograd, with the support of the bourgeois parties and the opportunist parties in the Petrograd Soviet.
From the archives of the Russian Revolution
Trying Days
By Leon Trotsky, 24 July 2017
This is a new translation of an article by Leon Trotsky, published in Vperiod (Forward), Number 6, on July 22 (9 O.S.), 1917. Trotsky wrote this article after the July Days and before his arrest by the Provisional Government.
Fifty years since the Detroit rebellion
Part three: Liberal promises and capitalist reality in “New Detroit”
By Barry Grey, 24 July 2017
The WSWS is posting a three-part series originally published in July of 1987 under the title “Twenty years since the Detroit rebellion.” This is the third and final part. Part one was published on July 21, part two on July 22.
Fifty years since the Detroit rebellion
Part two: The explosion
By Barry Grey, 22 July 2017
The WSWS is posting a three-part series originally published in July of 1987 under the title “Twenty years since the Detroit rebellion.” This is the second part. Part one was published on July 21.
Fifty years since the Detroit rebellion
Part one: An uprising of the oppressed
By Barry Grey, 21 July 2017
The WSWS is posting a three-part series originally published in July of 1987 under the title “Twenty years since the Detroit rebellion.”
Albert Einstein’s life, or parts of it, in the first season of National Geographic’s Genius
By Bryan Dyne, 20 July 2017
The 10-episode season depicts the life of one of the most renowned scientists in world history without paying much attention to the science he developed.
German military historian Sönke Neitzel evokes the traditions of Hitler’s Wehrmacht
By Christoph Vandreier, 19 July 2017
In an interview with Der Spiegel, Neitzel insists that Germany’s Armed Forces must stand in the tradition of Hitler’s Wehrmacht because they must be an “instrument of battle.”
This week in the Russian Revolution
July 17–23: The “July Days,” Insurrection and counterrevolution in Petrograd
17 July 2017
The insurrection in Petrograd known as the “July Days” reaches high tide and then recedes before the combined efforts of the Provisional Government and the parties that currently lead the Soviet.
This week in the Russian Revolution
July 10–July 16: The beginning of the “July Days” in Petrograd
10 July 2017
Despite the warnings by Bolshevik leaders that a premature insurrection would be isolated and defeated, hundreds of thousands of workers decide to take matters into their own hands. This is the beginning of the “July Days.”
This week in the Russian Revolution
July 3-9: Lenin warns against premature insurrection
3 July 2017
Kerensky’s military offensive is developing into a terrible massacre of Russian soldiers. In the old tsarist capital, workers and soldiers are angry. In the Bolshevik Party’s middle and lower ranks, including in the Bolshevik Military Organization, many are demanding an immediate insurrection.
150 years of Canadian Confederation: Myth and reality
By Keith Jones, 1 July 2017
The representation of Canada as a progressive antipode to the rapacious dollar republic to the south has long been an important part of the ideological arsenal of the ruling class.
Professor Sean McMeekin revives discredited anti-Lenin slanders (Part I)
By David North, 30 June 2017
The century-old lie that the leader of the October Revolution was acting on behalf of German imperialism is revived in an Op-Ed piece published by the New York Times.
This week in the Russian Revolution
June 26–July 2: Bolshevik slogans dominate at massive Petrograd demonstration
26 June 2017
As Russia’s Provisional Government launches a major new military offensive, the efforts of the Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary leaders of the Petrograd Soviet to block the Bolsheviks from advancing their demands fail spectacularly.
From the archives of the Revolution
Declaration of the Bolshevik Faction at a session of the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets on the Question of the Offensive
By Leon Trotsky, 23 June 2017
This declaration, written by Trotsky but delivered by P. Pozern, warns the working class of the implications of the military offensive being prepared by the Provisional Government.
From the archives of the Revolution
Speech on a personal note at an evening session of the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets
By Leon Trotsky, 22 June 2017
This is a contemporary account of a speech delivered by Trotsky in which he addresses the slanders being spread by Miliukov and others that he and Lenin were agents of the German government.
From the archives of the Revolution
Speech on the question of war
By Leon Trotsky, 21 June 2017
This is a contemporary account of a speech delivered by Trotsky before a United Session of Social-Democratic Members of the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets held in Petrograd in June 1917.
Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin: When the White House fixed a Russian election
By Alan Gilman, 14 June 2017
One fairly recent election stands out for the brazen and open manner in which the United States government, directed from the White House, intervened to put its candidate in office in a foreign land. The targeted country was none other than Russia.
From the archives of the Revolution
From the Kronstadt Sailors, Soldiers, and Workers—To the Revolutionary People of Petrograd and All Russia
By Leon Trotsky, 13 June 2017
This declaration by the Kronstadt Soviet was written by Trotsky after he met with the Kronstadt sailors in June to discuss how to respond to the many attacks by the Provisional Government and the bourgeois press against the naval base.
Fifty years since the Six Day Arab-Israeli War
By Jean Shaoul, 9 June 2017
The Israeli military victory over Egypt, Jordan and Syria, far from bringing a new period of peace and prosperity, brought oppression, further wars and social misery to working people in both Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Political lessons of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in China
By James Cogan, 5 June 2017
Each year, the Stalinist regime mobilises its police state apparatus to prevent any commemoration of the massacre, which was aimed at suppressing a potentially revolutionary movement of the Chinese working class.
From the archives of the Revolution
Speech at a Session of the Petrograd Soviet on reports by the socialist ministers
By Leon Trotsky, 27 May 2017
This is a new translation of a speech delivered by Trotsky before the Petrograd Soviet on May 26, 1917 (May 13 O.S.).
From the archives of the Russian Revolution
Seventh All-Russian Bolshevik Conference: Resolution on the war
15 May 2017
This resolution on the war, drafted by Lenin, was passed at the Seventh All-Russian Bolshevik Conference, which took place in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) from May 7 to 12 (April 24-29, O.S.).
Lecture on the centenary of the Russian Revolution
Lenin’s Return to Russia and the April Theses
By James Cogan, 8 May 2017
We are publishing here the text of a lecture delivered on Saturday, May 6, by James Cogan, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia). The audio for the lecture is embedded in the text.
San Francisco International Film Festival—Part 4
Dziga Vertov’s The Man with a Movie Camera: One of the films you must see!
By David Walsh and Joanne Laurier, 6 May 2017
A highlight of the recent San Francisco film festival was the screening of Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov’s masterpiece, The Man with a Movie Camera (1929), at the historic Castro Theatre.
Series on the centenary of the Russian Revolution
Online lecture Saturday: Lenin’s Return to Russia and the April Theses
By James Cogan, 5 May 2017
James Cogan, National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in Australia, will be delivering the lecture on Saturday, May 6 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Register for the series at wsws.org/1917.
Australia: Anzac Day and the official silence about anti-war opposition in WWI
By Richard Phillips, 4 May 2017
Contrary to government claims, Australia in 1917 was sharply divided along class lines and its involvement in World War I deeply unpopular.
This week in the Russian Revolution
May 1-7: April Crisis breaks out in Petrograd
1 May 2017
Newspapers in Petrograd publish a telegram by the Provisional Government’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, promising to abide by the tsar’s secret treaties and “fight the world war out to a decisive victory.” Workers and soldiers in Petrograd respond with massive anti-government demonstrations.
Lecture on the centenary of the Russian Revolution
Spontaneity and Consciousness in The February Revolution
By Joseph Kishore, 26 April 2017
This is an edited version of a lecture delivered live on April 22, 2017 by Joseph Kishore, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (US). The audio and slides for the lecture are embedded in the text. To register for the lecture series, visit wsws.org/1917.
This week in the Russian Revolution
April 24-30: Trotsky released from British prison camp in Canada
24 April 2017
As Trotsky is released from the camp in Canada, the Bolshevik Party in Petrograd is embroiled in turmoil following the publication of Lenin’s April Theses. The party holds a city conference, in which Lenin’s positions win substantial support.
Sri Lankan government sponsors a sham celebration of the Russian Revolution
By Vijith Samarasinghe, 15 April 2017
The event was a congregation of right-wing politicians, pseudo-lefts and anti-Marxist representatives of academia who are deeply hostile to the heritage of the Russian Revolution.
This week in the Russian Revolution
April 10-16: Lenin arrives at Finland Station
10 April 2017
Lenin’s arrival at Finland Station in Petrograd in April 1917, 100 years ago this week, is one of the most dramatic moments in world history. Against the backdrop of hitherto unprecedented carnage and suffering, Lenin arrives in Petrograd with an unshakeable determination to orient the Bolshevik party to the perspective of international socialist revolution.
War and Revolution: 1914–1917
By Nick Beams, 10 April 2017
We are publishing here the text of a lecture delivered Saturday, April 8 by Nick Beams, a member of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site. This is the third in a series of five international online lectures being presented by the International Committee of the Fourth International to mark the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
Writings of Trotsky from 1917
Who Are the Traitors?
By Leon Trotsky, 25 March 2017
In this article, translated for the first time into English, Trotsky responds to claims that his denunciations of the war plans of the bourgeois provisional government make him a “Germanophile and traitor.”
ANZAC Heroes: Promoting war to children
By Sam Price and Tom Peters, 24 March 2017
A New Zealand government-funded children’s book glorifies Australian and New Zealand involvement in World War I and II.
Germany: Great interest in upcoming screening of Tsar to Lenin at Leipzig Book Fair
By our correspondents, 22 March 2017
The IYSSE and Mehring Verlag will be screening the documentary on the Russian Revolution at the upcoming Leipzig Book Fair.
Trump turns to American history
The strange political afterlife of Andrew Jackson
By Tom Mackaman, 21 March 2017
The political art of Jackson, which so inspires the Trump administration, consisted of his ability to obscure powerful contradictions behind a veil of nationalism and populist demagogy.
Revisiting John Steinbeck’s A Russian Journal from 1948
By Clara Weiss, 21 March 2017
American novelist John Steinbeck, together with famed Hungarian-born war photographer Robert Capa, visited the Soviet Union in 1947 on the very eve of the Cold War.
Writings of Trotsky from 1917
War or Peace? (Internal Forces of the Revolution)
By Leon Trotsky, 20 March 2017
In this article, Trotsky writes, “The international struggle against world-wide slaughter and imperialism is now our task more than ever before.”
Writings of Trotsky from 1917
Under the Banner of the Commune
By Leon Trotsky, 17 March 2017
In this article, Trotsky writes, “In the trenches overflowing with blood and mud, in the starving cities and villages, millions of hearts are filled with indignation, despair and rage. And these feelings, when combined with socialist thought, are turning into revolutionary enthusiasm.”
The Revolution in Russia
By Leon Trotsky, 16 March 2017
In this article, translated for the first time, Trotsky writes, “Our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will speak of these days as the beginning of a new epoch in the history of mankind.”
Unease in Europe
By Leon Trotsky, 15 March 2017
In this article, translated for the first time, Trotsky writes, “Every decisive action taken by the Russian proletariat against the most worthless of the worthless European governments will serve as a mighty stimulus for the workers in all other countries.”
Why Study the Russian Revolution? New pamphlet now available
15 March 2017
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.
Raoul Peck’s The Young Karl Marx
By Peter Schwarz, 15 March 2017
The Haitian-born director Raoul Peck has set himself the task of presenting the formative years of Marxism in a film, covering the period from the prohibition of the Rheinische Zeitung in March 1843, to the writing of the Communist Manifesto at the end of 1847.
Large global turnout for online lecture, “Why Study the Russian Revolution?”
13 March 2017
A large audience from more than 60 countries listened live to the lecture delivered by WSWS chairman David North, the first in a series marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution.
From the archives of the Revolution
The Petrograd Soviet’s “Order No. 1”
By the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, 13 March 2017
At the demand of soldiers, the Petrograd Soviet on March 14 (March 1, O.S.) issued “Order No. 1,” which Trotsky described as “the single worthy document of the February revolution.”
On the Threshold of Revolution
By Leon Trotsky, 12 March 2017
This article was written by Leon Trotsky on March 13, 1917. An English translation appeared as “On the Eve of a Revolution” in the 1918 edition of Trotsky’s Our Revolution, edited and translated by M. J. Olgin.
This week in the Russian Revolution
March 6-12: February Revolution erupts in Petrograd
6 March 2017
The eruption of the February Revolution in Petrograd finds the two greatest figures of Russian Marxism—Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky—in exile, following events in Russia closely and anxiously awaiting their chance to return.
More than 75,000 view interview with David North
Growing international interest in Russian Revolution Centenary online lecture series
1 March 2017
The series will begin with a lecture by WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North, “Why Study the Russian Revolution?” streamed live on YouTube on Saturday, March 11 at 5:00 p.m. EST.
This week in the Russian Revolution
February 27-March 5: American imperialism prepares for world war
27 February 2017
From the eruption of war in 1914, the US maintained a position of formal neutrality—partly owing to mass anti-war sentiment among American workers and farmers. The neutrality became increasingly fictitious as the war dragged on.
This week in the Russian Revolution
February 20-26: War deepens crisis of the Tsarist regime
20 February 2017
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was the greatest event in modern history. Between February and October, Russia passed from the overthrow of the Tsar through a short episode of bourgeois rule to the establishment of the first workers state. To mark the centenary, the WSWS is publishing a weekly feature that will provide a kaleidoscopic view of the revolution and the global events of 1917, an epochal year in world history.
Eighty years since the victory of the Flint sit-down strike—Part two
By Jerry White, 16 February 2017
This is the conclusion of a two-part series on the 44-day battle by US autoworkers in 1936-37 that forced General Motors, the world’s largest industrial enterprise, to recognize the recently founded United Auto Workers union.
Eighty years since the victory of the Flint sit-down strike—Part one
By Jerry White, 15 February 2017
The 44-day battle by autoworkers lasted from December 29, 1936 to February 11, 1937. It forced General Motors, then the largest industrial enterprise on the planet, to recognize the recently founded United Auto Workers.
This week in history: February 13-19
13 February 2017
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Alberto Cavalcanti and postwar British cinema
By Joanne Laurier, 10 February 2017
In the course of a lengthy filmmaking career, Brazilian-born Alberto Cavalcanti created several of the most poetically realistic and socially poignant films of the twentieth century.
This week in history: February 6-12
6 February 2017
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: January 30-February 5
30 January 2017
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Seventy-five years since the Wannsee Conference
By Clara Weiss, 25 January 2017
Last Friday, January 20, marked the 75th anniversary of the notorious Wannsee Conference, in which 15 influential representatives of the Nazi regime discussed the so-called “final solution of the Jewish question.”
Book review
Lessons from the 1937 Little Steel strike in the US
The Last Great Strike: Little Steel, the CIO, and the Struggle for Labor Rights in New Deal America, by Ahmed White
By Tom Mackaman, 23 January 2017
If the Little Steel Strike has been ignored by historians, it is perhaps because it does not fit the standard narrative of American labor history.
This week in history: January 23-29
23 January 2017
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Hitler’s Professors: A documentation of war crimes by German academics against the Jewish people
By Clara Weiss, 16 January 2017
Max Weinreich’s classic study, Hitler’s Professors, first published in 1946, documents the role of leading German academics in the murder of Europe’s Jewish population.
This week in history: January 16-22
16 January 2017
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw—Part 1
Jewish life in Poland before World War II
By Clara Weiss, 9 January 2017
The core exhibition at the recently opened POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw has now marked its second anniversary.
Exile as an Intellectual Way of Life: The collaboration of Lion Feuchtwanger and Bertolt Brecht
By Sybille Fuchs, 29 December 2016
In his new book, journalist and non-fiction writer Andreas Rumler examines the intellectual relationship between two major German literary figures, Lion Feuchtwanger and Bertolt Brecht.
Four hundred years since William Shakespeare’s death–Part 2
And a conversation with James Shapiro of Columbia University
By David Walsh, 20 December 2016
It is four centuries since the death of dramatist William Shakespeare. Arts editor David Walsh spoke to James Shapiro, the author of numerous remarkable books on the playwright and his times. The second of two articles.
This week in history: December 19-25
19 December 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: December 12-18
12 December 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (1856–1918): His Place in the History of Marxism
By David North and Vladimir Volkov, 5 December 2016
On December 11, the international socialist movement marks the 160th anniversary of the birth of the “father of Russian Marxism,” Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov.
Jörg Baberowski’s falsification of history
By Christoph Vandreier, 5 December 2016
Historians like Humboldt University's Jörg Baberowski are labouring to rewrite and falsify history in order to justify new wars and discredit opposition to them.
Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today—the 1948 documentary restored
By Clara Weiss, 5 December 2016
The film, written and directed by Stuart Schulberg, was intended to advertise the principles underlying the indictment of the Nazi criminals at the Nuremberg Trials.
This week in history: December 5-11
5 December 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Fifty years since the Aboriginal stockmen’s strike
By Richard Phillips, 3 December 2016
While Australia’s political elite hails the 1966 Wave Hill walkout strike, tens of thousands of Aboriginal people continue to live in dire poverty.
This week in history: November 28-December 4
28 November 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: November 21-27
21 November 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: November 14-20
14 November 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: November 7-13
7 November 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: October 31-November 6
31 October 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Berlin exhibition—“Mass Shootings: The Holocaust from the Baltic to the Black Sea 1941-1944”
By Verena Nees, 28 October 2016
A small, but nonetheless very significant exhibition is currently on display at the Berlin Documentation Centre.
Hundreds attend lecture by David North in Frankfurt, Germany
By our correspondents, 25 October 2016
In a lecture titled “Philosophy and Politics in Times of War and Revolution,” David North presented his book The Frankfurt School, Postmodernism and the Politics of the Pseudo-Left.
This week in history: October 24-30
24 October 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
The autocratic record of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej
By Tom Peters, 20 October 2016
King Bhumibol, who is being glorified by the media and politicians around the world, supported one military dictatorship after another to suppress the working class and the poor.
1937: When Canadian and US autoworkers fought together
By Roger Jordan, 20 October 2016
Coming just weeks after the Flint sit-down strike, the 1937 strike at GM’s Oshawa facilities contains pivotal lessons for autoworkers fighting to defend their jobs and rights against the Detroit Three and the Unifor bureaucracy.
This week in history: October 17-23
17 October 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: October 10-16
10 October 2016
Trotsky in New York, 1917: A Radical on the Eve of Revolution, by Kenneth D. Ackerman
By Linda Tenenbaum, 8 October 2016
Trotsky in New York, 1917 focuses on a remarkable period in the life of one of the greatest political figures in modern history.
The development of public water systems and the crisis in Flint
By Shannon Jones, 5 October 2016
The events in Flint are a sharp expression of a historical retrogression in the United States, where gains made by the working class in an earlier period are being stripped away.
Adam Hochschild’s Spain in Our Hearts: A deeply felt work on the Spanish Civil War marred by its perspective
By Emanuele Saccarelli, 3 October 2016
Hochschild is the well-known author of several books on wide-ranging and important topics, including the brutality of Belgian colonialism in the Congo (King Leopold’s Ghost).
This week in history: October 3-9
3 October 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
New Zealand Labour Party marks its centenary
By Tom Peters, 29 September 2016
Contrary to the myths advanced by Labour’s apologists, the party was never socialist. It has always defended capitalism at home and supported imperialist war abroad.
This week in history: September 12-18
12 September 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
This week in history: September 5-11
5 September 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
Eighty years since the first Moscow Trial
By Fred Williams, 1 September 2016
In carrying out these trials, Joseph Stalin was launching an assault on the legacy and the leaders of the first successful socialist revolution.
The class essence of the Confederacy in the American Civil War
A further comment on Free State of Jones
By Douglas Lyons, 30 August 2016
In their attacks on the film, figures like Charles Blow of the New York Times are denigrating some of the noblest individuals in American history.
This week in history: August 29-September 4
29 August 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
New Zealand: WWI Home Front exhibition buries mass opposition to war
By Tom Peters and Sam Price, 22 August 2016
The exhibition about life “at home” during World War I hails New Zealand’s contribution to the war and covers up the opposition that emerged in the working class.
This week in history: August 22-28
22 August 2016
This Week in History provides brief synopses of important historical events whose anniversaries fall this week.
On the death of German historian Ernst Nolte
By Christoph Vandreier and Peter Schwarz, 20 August 2016
Nolte is infamous for initiating the Historikerstreit (Historians’ Dispute) in 1986 with his downplaying of National Socialism and the worst crimes in human history.
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