New book: OCTOBER 1917 – WORKERS IN POWER Featured

OCTOBER 1917 – WORKERS IN POWER

Authors: Paul Le Blanc, Ernest Mandel, David Mandel, François Vercammen, and contemporary texts by Rosa Luxemburg, Lenin, Leon Trotsky.
Edited: Fred Leplat and Alex de Jong

Published together with Merlin Press and Resistance Books, our new book is a collection of new and classic essays examining the impact of the October revolution. Paul Le Blanc discusses recent scholarship and debates on the revolution, considering 'what went wrong'. In 'October 1917: Coup d'état or social revolution?', Ernest Mandel analyses the events, defending the legitimacy of the Revolution and drawing out lessons for contemporary socialists. David Mandel draws on Russian-language archives to reconstruct developments from below.

Other texts by François Vercammen and David Mandel give a historical backdrop for readers who are not necessarily familiar with the chronology of the events. Finally, short texts by Lenin, Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg give the views of communist leaders of the time.

The book costs 20 euros plus postage and be ordered from our store.

What they say about the book:

“October 1917: Workers in Power” provides a stimulating starting-point for centennial reassessment of the Russian revolution. Paul Le Blanc provides a sparkling and authoritative survey of major historical studies; David Mandel expertly analyses workers’ control in the Russian upheaval. Classic assessments of the October upheaval by Lenin, Luxemburg, Trotsky and more recently, Ernest Mandel round out this important addition to socialist literature on 1917.
John Riddell, editor of eight-volume documentary series on the world revolutionary movement in Lenin’s time and ecosocialist activist.

For an objective study of 1917, not uncritical, but firmly rooted in the revolutionary tradition, this book can be unhesitatingly recommended.
Soma Marik, author of Revolutionary Democracy: Emancipation in Classical Marxism, Haymarket and IIRE (forthcoming, 2017).

This collection, containing both texts by participants and retrospective historical analyses, defends the achievements of the Revolution while honestly recognizing its limitations, and will stimulate informed discussion.
Ian Birchall, socialist historian.

This is an important collection celebrating the legacy of the Russian Revolution in its centenary year.  Paul Le Blanc’s Introduction provides rich historical context for past events.  But the book is really about the future.  It is an effort to nourish the lessons of past such that they may irrigate new struggles of the future.
Tithi Bhattacharya, Professor of History, Purdue University; editorial board member, International Socialist Review.

A fascinating and unexpected collection of materials that shine a needed light on the workers revolution of 1917. All in all, a spirited defence of the October revolution at a time when many people would like to forget all about it.
Lars Lih, author of Lenin Rediscovered: What is to be Done? in Context, Haymarket 2008.

Contents:
Making sense of October 1917, Paul Le Blanc
The stages of the 1917 Revolution, François Vercammen
October 1917: coup d’état or social revolution, Ernest Mandel
Economic power and factory committees in the Russian Revolution, David Mandel
The legitimacy of the October Revolution, David Mandel
The Old Mole, Rosa Luxemburg
To the population, Lenin
Letter to American Workers, Lenin
In defence of October, Leon Trotsky