The Russian Revolution - The First International

The first international proved how easily it is for broad, left-wing revolutionary alliances to break down. Personal and doctrinal disputes between Marx and Bakunin led to the fracturing of the first international in 1872. For me, the Russian Revolution is not a narrow story about how Lenin and the Bolshevik party came to power at the end of 1917. There's no reason 1917 couldn't be just another 1848. Nothing is inevitable. Everything is chaos and chance and luck. Everyone fights in the present over the remnants of an exhausted past to build their own preferred future. And starting next week, I will tell you all about it.