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ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE
The School and The North
Wall recently mounted an important exhibition,
Lenin: Leader of the Russian Revolution
, to
mark the 100th anniversary of the October
Revolution of 1917. Curated by the History
Department and the Society for Co-operation
in Russian and Soviet Studies, the show was a
huge success, attracting over 1,300 visitors from
the School, Oxford, London and beyond. Below, Sixth Form
Historian Barnabas Fletcher introduces the man and the period.
1917:Year of Revolution
Lenin was in exile in Switzerland in early
1917 when political events in Russia began
to move rapidly in the direction of significant
political upheaval. The February Revolution
came after a series of major defeats for the
Russian armies on the Eastern Front, which
forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. He was
replaced by a Provisional Government,
desiring social democracy, under the
leadership of Aleksander Kerensky. It
was only in April, weeks after the first
Revolution, that Lenin managed to negotiate
with the Germans to allow him and other
Bolsheviks to travel in a sealed train back
to Russia. The Germans facilitated this
because they hoped that Lenin would
further destabilise Russia in WWI.
Lenin:A Life
in Politics and
Revolution
Barnabas Fletcher