{"id":47772,"date":"2017-11-08T15:01:02","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T20:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=47772"},"modified":"2017-11-08T16:34:20","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T21:34:20","slug":"brock-conference-marks-100th-anniversary-of-russian-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/11\/brock-conference-marks-100th-anniversary-of-russian-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock conference marks 100th anniversary of Russian Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

A conference held at Brock this weekend will examine the legacies and lessons of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.<\/span><\/p>\n

Living Legacies of Russia\u2019s Socialist Revolution<\/span><\/a>, organized by Associate Professor Jonah Butovsky and Professor Murray Smith in the Department of Sociology, will have participants exploring what the revolution meant then, as well as what it means today.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRussia\u2019s socialist revolution addressed the most urgent challenges facing workers and peasants in the Russian empire a century ago \u2014 war, material deprivation, glaring class inequalities, tyranny, national oppression and so on \u2014 while also pointing the way forward to an egalitarian-socialist future for all of humanity,\u201d explains Smith. \u201cIn our view, those challenges remain very much with us today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Butovsky agrees that reviewing the events of 1917 can help present-day scholars see a way forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the great ideals of the early years of the revolutionary government were soon betrayed by an increasingly corrupt bureaucratic oligarchy headed by Joseph Stalin,\u201d Butovsky asserts. \u201cEven so, we think it is a huge mistake for socialists \u2014 and all those looking to secure human well-being and flourishing in the 21st century \u2014 to discount the important lessons offered by the Russian revolution for bringing about transformative change.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The conference begins with an address by Bryan Palmer, an internationally recognized expert in labour studies, socialist history and Marxist theory who taught for many years at Queen\u2019s University before becoming a Canada Research Chair at Trent University.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a break for lunch, participants have the opportunity to see <\/span>Tsar to Lenin<\/span><\/em>, a documentary film originally released in 1937 but then hidden from view for some 75 years, until its DVD release in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Smith and Butovsky, the documentary constitutes the definitive film record of the key events of the Russian Revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen <\/span>Tsar to Lenin<\/span><\/em> was first released, Stalin\u2019s regime did everything in its power to suppress it because it told the truth about the key role played by Leon Trotsky, alongside Lenin, in leading the revolution and establishing the Soviet government,\u201d says Smith. Trotsky was exiled by Stalin in 1928 and assassinated in 1940.<\/span><\/p>\n

Butovsky points out that the story behind the film is also telling. \u201cThe longtime disappearance of <\/span>Tsar to Lenin<\/span><\/em> was bound up with the determination of Stalinists and capitalists alike to falsify the real history of the Russian revolution, and to firmly entrench the fatally false idea that Stalinism was the legitimate continuator of Lenin\u2019s Marxism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The conference concludes with a panel discussion on how present-day socialists can learn from historical events. The panel features presentations by Alex Grant, representing the International Marxist Tendency and its Canadian affiliate Fightback, and Josh Decker, representing the International Bolshevik Tendency.<\/span><\/p>\n

The conference, sponsored by the Brock Socialist Club, CUPE 4207, the Department of Sociology and the Department of Labour Studies, takes place Saturday, Nov. 11 from 9:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Sankey Chamber. Advance registration is not required, and all are welcome to attend.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A conference held at Brock this weekend will examine the legacies and lessons of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":47773,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,1,4,38],"tags":[2524,5964,5965,5963],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47774,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47772\/revisions\/47774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}