Ten Months that No Longer Shake the World? The Centenary of the Russian Revolution and Beyond

Centenaries are times to reflect and assess status. This essay discusses accounts of how the centenary of the Russian Revolution was marked around the globe by governments, national media and civil society in general before going on to examine some of the large number of academic contributions to the debate in the form of books, special editions of journals and so on. As well as reflecting on what was said the article also discusses what the centennial output told us about the standing of the revolution around the world, about its meaning in different contexts and about whether we learned anything new. Among its conclusions are that, with the formidable exception of China, very few claims were made for ownership of and support for the revolution, that western academic contributions tended to repeat rather than expand existing interpretations and that Russian interpretations tended to ignore aspects of the revolution associated with the once dominant official Soviet era discourse.

Automated summary

This essay discusses how the centenary of the Russian Revolution was commemorated globally, the limited ownership claims and support for the revolution outside of China, the tendency for western academic contributions to repeat rather than expand existing interpretations, and how Russian interpretations tended to ignore aspects associated with the Soviet era discourse.