Russian Revolution Of 1905 : Change Through Struggle

The Russian revolution of 1905 was the first modern revolution; it was the first revolution in which the working class took a leading role, building its own institutions — the soviets — and imposing its control upon the day-to-day life of the country’s urban centres.
This issue of Revolutionary History is devoted to the observations and reminiscences of revolutionary activists who were directly involved in the events of 1905. Collected and translated into English for the first time by Pete Glatter, these contributions show how the Russian workers were politically transformed through their involvement in revolutionary struggle, how women often took a militant lead, how Russian workers showed their solidarity with their Polish comrades and opposed the anti-Jewish pogroms, and how the revolutionary parties of Russia oriented themselves to the new and often unexpected developments. Also included are three articles by Rosa Luxemburg on 1905 that have never before appeared in an English translation.
The 1905 revolution almost unseated the Tsarist autocracy, and although it recovered through a period of reaction, it was to fall just 12 years later when the Russian working class once again entered on the revolutionary road. One hundred years on, Revolutionary History celebrates the revolutionary workers of the Russian empire, whose struggles still have great relevance to socialists today.