Other lives: History teacher and writer on the leading figures of the Russian revolution
December 2023
Blood on the Snow: The Russian Revolution 1914-1924 by Robert Service – review
This work of a lifetime presents high-octane, high-politcal drama – and attempts to rehabilitate the ‘bourgeois’ provisional government that preceded the Bolsheviks
November 2023
From the Observer archive
What would Lenin have made of the Soviet Union in 1987?
A Nasty Little War review – the west’s chaotic campaign to undo the Russian Revolution
June 2022
Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921 by Antony Beevor review – butchery of the Bolsheviks
Personal testimonies humanise the Stalingrad author’s mesmerising study of the bloody battle for power after the collapse of the tsarist regime
March 2022
From the Guardian archive
Revolution breaks out in Russia, archive 1917
On 8 March 1917 (23 February in the old Russian calendar), food riots and strikes in Petrograd led to revolution and the abdication of the tsar. See how the Guardian reported events
January 2022
From the Guardian archive
Leon Trotsky dismissed from the Russian Communist party – archive, 1925
20 January 1925: The ‘old guard’ deemed him and his allies as working against all the canons of Bolshevism
November 2020
Russia wrests back ownership of Orthodox churches in France
Kremlin accused of ‘aggressive’ campaign to reclaim churches built before 1917 revolution
June 2020
From the Guardian archive
An interview with Lenin: views on the tactics of English socialists - archive, 1920
24 June 1920 The head of Soviet Russia talks about English politics, the state of Russia’s economy and the peasant opposition
March 2020
First Lenin statue in western Germany to be erected after heated battle
Victory for Gelsenkirchen’s leftist party MLPD after city authorities tried to halt installation
November 2019
Top 10s
Top 10 eyewitness accounts of 20th-century history
These stories of a tumultuous era bring to life its intimate passions and accidents as well as its overwhelming scale
January 2019
Back pages
The History of the Russian Revolution Vol II and III by Leon Trotsky – archive, 8 January 1933
In the first of a new series of reviews from the Observer archives, author – and alleged spy – Arthur Ransome writes about Trotsky’s tome
December 2018
Book of the day
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism – review
Kristen R Ghodsee’s study of the links between female sexual pleasure and politics is a joyous read
August 2018
Our schools didn’t sideline the Peterloo massacre
Letters: Film-maker Mike Leigh’s call for the Peterloo massacre to be widely taught in schools prompts reactions from readers David Lepper, Susan French, Steve Griffiths and Michael Thompson
June 2018
The Aviator by Eugene Vodolazkin review – a time-traveller’s life
In this exploration of history and memory from the Ukrainian-born author, the protagonist is transported from the Bolshevik labour camps to the modern world
March 2018
Other lives
Anya Berger obituary
Other lives: intellectual and linguist who played a personal part in many events and movements of the 20th century
February 2018
Russia’s archives still open for business
Letters: Donald Filtzer says Antony Beevor was wrong to assert that most Russian archives were closed to foreign historians in 2000, while Zofia Nowinska puts Finland’s wartime alliance with Germany in context
January 2018
What You Did Not Tell: A Russian Past and the Journey Home review – Mark Mazower’s evocative story of his forebears
The noted historian’s account of his family’s exile from Russia after the revolution offers a rich cast of characters
November 2017
Book of the day
‘Why the response to the centenary is muted’ – the Russian Revolution and its legacy
Red Star Over Russia: A Revolution in Visual Culture 1905-55 review – a momentous show
