The Silenced Majority: Non-Bolshevik Leftist Revolutions in the Former Russian Empire, 1917-1921

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

In popular culture and much historiography, 1917 is construed as the year of the Bolshevik Revolution. Yet, an increasing amount of research shows that the revolutionary landscape encompassed numerous political and cultural movements existing in parallel to the Bolshevik conception of revolution. Indeed, the kaleidoscopic nature of this period reveals a silenced majority that conceived of a revolutionary reorganization of social and economic life, often radically at odds with the Bolsheviks despite a surface-level congruence of slogans and rhetoric. From Socialist-Revolutionaries and peasant Makhnovists to the workers and sailors of Russia's northwest and the aspirations of the non-party intelligentsia, our roundtable will engage these leftist anti-Bolshevik voices, exploring their unfinished visions and the alliances they forged.  

Sub Unit

• History: 1900-1945

Chair

• Boris B Gorshkov, Kennesaw State U

Roundtable Speakers

• Dmitrii Ivanov, Independent Scholar

• Michael Stanford Melancon, Auburn U

• Alice K. Pate, Kennesaw State U

• Sean Patterson, U of Alberta (Canada)