October 1917 - by Paul Le Blanc & David Mandel (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Was October 1917 a coup d'état or a social revolution? Writing as both a historian and political activist, Ernest Mandel sets out to analyse the events and vigorously reasserts the deep legitimacy of the Russian Revolution. He considers the gains of the revolution, discusses the mistakes made by the Bolshevik leadership in 1917-21, and sets out lessons to be learnt for revolutionary Marxists today.

About the Author

Paul Le Blanc is Professor of History at La Roche College (USA) and author of internationally acclaimed works on the labour and socialist movements, including Lenin and the Revolutionary Party, From Marx to Gramsci, and Leon Trotsky. An editor of the eight-volume International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest, he is currently helping to oversee the Verso Books edition of The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg. David Mandel is a Canadian scholar, union and political activist. He teaches political science at the Université du Québec à Montréal and has been active in labour education in the Russia, Ukraine and Belarus for many years. He has written extensively on the labour movement in the Russian Revolution and also in the post-Soviet period, including The Petrograd Workers in the Russian Revolution - February 1917-June 1918 (a revised and enlarged edition to appear in 2017, Brill and Haymarket Press) and Labour after Communism (Black Rose Press).