Lenin

In seven years, Lenin changed the course of history

1 July 2023 9:00 am

Between his return from exile and his death, Lenin launched – and perverted – the revolution that shapes world politics today

Nothing is certain in Russia, where the past is constantly rewritten

20 August 2022 9:00 am

Nothing is certain in a country where the past is constantly rewritten, says Owen Matthews

For ruthless inhumanity, the Bolsheviks were unbeatable

21 May 2022 9:00 am

Sara Wheeler describes the appalling brutality of the Russian Revolution and its far-reaching aftermath

Bolshevism: the enemy of democracy

2 June 2018 9:00 am

From ‘News of the week’, 1 June 1918: Bolshevism is the negation of democratic government. There is no pretence on…

‘Soviet Union Art Exhibition’, Zurich 1931, by Valentina Kulagina

The art of persuasion

28 October 2017 9:00 am

It’s hard to admire communist art with an entirely clear conscience. The centenary of the October revolution, which falls this…

High life

26 August 2017 9:00 am

When the Germans smuggled arguably the world’s most evil man into Russia 100 years ago, they did not imagine the…

Teffi: from Russia with laughs

21 May 2016 9:00 am

‘Ah! Scrubbing the deck! My childhood dream! As a child I had once seen a sailor hosing the deck with…

Admiral Kolchak, supreme ruler of the Whites: when shown his likeness, some peasants guessed that he was ‘probably an Englishman’

When the Russians killed Mother Russia

5 March 2016 9:00 am

On the 24–25 October 1917 (according to the Julian Calendar, or 7–8 November according to the Gregorian) the political disputes which…

Here’s my solution to the problem of what to do with the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College

23 January 2016 9:00 am

Lobengula was the second king of the Matabele people in what is now Zimbabwe. He was also the last. Cecil…

The threat from Russia’s spies has only increased since the fall of Communism

2 August 2014 9:00 am

‘No, we must go our own way,’ said Lenin.  The whole world knows him as Vladimir, while he was in…

‘Less political satire than back-handed homage:Charlie Chaplin in a scene from The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin, monster

12 April 2014 9:00 am

No actual birth certificate for Charles Spencer Chaplin has ever been found. The actor himself drew a blank when he…

The many attempts to assassinate Trotsky

4 January 2014 9:00 am

Leon Trotsky’s grandson, Esteban Volkov, is a retired chemist in his early eighties. I met him not long ago in…

Secrets of the Kremlin

14 December 2013 9:00 am

A building bearing testimony to the power of eternal Russia; a timeless symbol of the Russian state; a monument to…

The Tragedy of Liberation, by Frank Dikötter - review

14 September 2013 9:00 am

The historian of China Frank Dikötter has taken a sledgehammer to demolish perhaps the last remaining shibboleth of modern Chinese…