20 August marks the anniversary of the attack by a GPU assassin, on the orders of Stalin, against Leon Trotsky, which led to his death the following day. This article by Alan Woods, commemorating Trotsky, was originally published in the year 2000. We share it today in memory of a revolutionary titan whose work and sacrifices preserved the authentic traditions of Marxism and Bolshevism for future generations. 

To mark the anniversary of the death of the great revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin, we are republishing this article, which was originally written to commemorate the Lenin centenary in 1970. The early symptoms of bureaucratic degeneration in Russia were already noted by Lenin in the last two years of his politically active life. He spent his last months fighting against these reactionary tendencies, leaving behind a vital heritage of struggle in his last letters and articles. The struggle of the anti-Stalinist Left Opposition, led by Trotsky after Lenin's death, really begins here.

Today, 4 January 2023, marks the centenary of Lenin’s dictation of his postscript to his ‘Letter to the Congress’, also known as his ‘Testament’. In it, Lenin took up the struggle against the bureaucratisation of the Soviet state, which was threatening to derail all the gains of the revolution. Suppressed for decades by Stalin, this Testament dispels the slander that Stalinism was the continuation of Leninism.

V. I. Lenin was one of the greatest revolutionaries to have ever lived. His life’s work and his ideas represent a brilliant application of the Marxist method. On the firm foundation of Marxist theory, Lenin built the Bolshevik Party, which in 1917 was able to lead the working class to the seizure of power in Russia – the first time that the working class anywhere had seized power on the scale of an entire nation. In this talk from Revolution Festival 2021, editor of Socialist Appeal, Rob Sewell, discusses his remarkable legacy, which any serious fighter for socialism today must undertake to carefully study.

7 November is the anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which altered the entire course of human history. The below article by Alan Woods (originally published in 1992) gives an excellent overview of the revolution as well as highlighting its main lessons. If you want to learn even more, check out our special page www.bolshevik.info for detailed analysis, reading guides, videos and much more about this momentous event.

The history of Bolshevism from the very early days right up to the Russian revolution contains a wealth of lessons on how it is the class struggle that provides the final answer to the women’s question. In this article Marie Frederiksen looks at the approach of the Bolshevik Party to the women’s question from its early days, right through to the revolution and after taking power. Originally published 8 March 2017.

Fyodor Fyodorovich Raskolnikov was a key Bolshevik activist and a principal organiser amongst the Kronstadt Sailors, who would prove so pivotal in the Bolsheviks' seizure of power. In these remarkable memoirs, which cover the period between the February and October Revolutions in 1917, Raskolnikov gives a first-hand account of how the Bolsheviks built their forces in the navy, describes the setbacks of the July Days (during which he, alongside Trotsky, was imprisoned by Kerensky's Provisional Government), and paints a vivid picture of the October insurrection and its immediate aftermath.

We republish a pamphlet (first released in 1987, during the twilight of the Soviet regime), which serves as an invaluable introduction to the events from the October Revolution to the rise of Stalinism in Russia ‒ from which innumerable lessons can be drawn for the class struggle today. It was written by George Collins, then a member of the South African section of the Committee for a Workers’ International.

We publish here a series of essential texts on the subject of women and the Russian Revolution by the likes of Lenin, Trotsky and leading female Bolsheviks like Krupskaya and Kollontai.

As expected, the centenary of the October 1917 Revolution has been greeted with a cacophony of distortions and slanders, especially against Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Hundreds of newspaper articles, books as well as TV and radio documentaries, have been produced with this express purpose in mind, all of which talk of coups and the Bolsheviks being German agents.

In his latest video outlining the key events of 1917, Alan Woods - author of "Bolshevism: the Road to Revolution" - discusses the October Revolution, when the workers and peasants of Russia seized power. Alan looks at the build up to the insurrection, which took place exactly 100 years ago on 7 November (25 October, old calendar), and explains the historic significance of the Bolshevik revolution on this centenary anniversary.

The following manifesto, written by Lenin and introduced by Anatoly Lunacharsky at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets in October 1917, announces the takeover of power by the Soviets, endorses the revolutionary overthrow of the Provisional Government in Petrograd; and calls on transfer of land to the peasants, bread to the cities and democratic control of production to the working class. Long live the October Revolution!

No other event in human history has been the subject of more distortions, falsehoods and fabrications the Russian Revolution. We publish here Alex Grant's complete list of the 10 biggest downright lies about the Bolsheviks and October...

The following series of articles provides in-depth analyses and first-hand accounts of the events immediately preceding, during and after the greatest event in human history: the October Revolution, in addition to reflections on its aftermath.

To mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution, we present this original documentary celebrating the life and accomplishments of one of the revolution’s main leaders: Leon Trotsky.