scholarly journals Revolutsiooni sidemehed: Eesti enamlikud emigrandid Kopenhaagenis 1918–1921 [Abstract: The couriers of revolution: Estonian Bolshevik émigrés in Copenhagen 1918–1921]

2018 ◽  
pp. 27-66
Author(s):  
Mart Kuldkepp
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Positive Development ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Russia

Abstract: The couriers of revolution: Estonian Bolshevik émigrés in Copenhagen 1918–1921   The history of the early twentieth-century Estonian left-wing radicalism has remained a relatively neglected field in the post-1991 period; not least due to its previous institutional role as the most favoured, but also the most highly politicised subject of historical research in Soviet Estonia. This state of affairs resulted in voluminous scholarship in “party history” produced over the decades following World War II, but its findings and conclusions are almost entirely untrustworthy and thoroughly biased in favour of Soviet-style Communism. In the last five years, however, the history of the Estonian left has attracted new attention on part of both younger scholars and senior academics – a highly positive development in light of the major role that left-wing ideas and movements have played in Estonian history from the 1905 Russian revolution onwards. Nevertheless, this newer research has the somewhat thankless task of having to re-examine the fundamentals without being able to rely on previous scholarship, which perhaps understandably limits its ability to generalise or to draw overarching conclusions. The present article is a contribution to this burgeoning field in Estonian historical research, engaging with the little-studied history of Estonian left-wing radicalism in Western Europe (rather than in Estonia or in Soviet Russia). I am particularly focusing on four individuals among émigré Estonians in Copenhagen, Denmark: August Lossmann (1890–?), Oskar Lenk (1890–1919), Johannes Rumessen (1888–?) and Harald Triikman (1892–1964). The primary period of study is 1918–22, although reference will be made to both earlier and later years where appropriate. The study makes use of both Estonian and foreign archival materials, contemporary newspapers and, occasionally, published scholarship. While my focus is on tracing and contextualising the activities and involvement of these four young men in both Danish and Estonian radical leftist circles, I will also propose some preliminary hypotheses relating to the radicalisation process of left-wing Estonian émigrés more generally, which in the future can hopefully be tested on a broader range of comparable subjects. Firstly, I would suggest that the Bolshevik Russian revolution (the October Revolution) was likely a pivotal moment in the development of their views: having been the supporters of Socialist Russian revolution, the Estonian émigrés tended to distance themselves from the more sceptical Social Democratic parties of their countries of residence in its aftermath, instead moving closer to Left Socialist or Communist parties that fully embraced the new revolution. Furthermore, their distance from and relative ignorance of Estonian affairs probably left them more open to contemporary Bolshevik propaganda, which among other things depicted the Estonian War of Independence (1918–19) as a struggle between an alliance of foreign capital and the Estonian bourgeoisie on the one hand, and the Estonian proletariat on the other. In the case of Lossmann, Lenk, Rumessen and Triikman, they were all connected to one Estonian Socialist (or Bolshevik) Group, established in 1918 and affiliated with the Danish Socialist Labour Party – the first openly Bolshevik party in Denmark. This Estonian group was headed by the remarkably well-respected Socialist Oskar Lenk, who in early 1919 was expulsed from Denmark due to his involvement in Bolshevik activities (among other things, working from the Copenhagen bureau of ROSTA, the Soviet Russian news propaganda agency). Later, he was active in Russia as a fairly prominent activist of the Estonian Communist Party, before being killed in a battle against the Whites in the autumn of the same year. Lenk’s influence in 1918 was likely of formative importance for his comrades in Copenhagen, at least one of whom (Johannes Rumessen) also became involved in the underground transport and intelligence network of the Estonian Communist Party in 1919–20.

History

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Rutten
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Transnational History ◽  
World War ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Russia

This chapter traces the transnational history of sincerity rhetoric, with particular emphasis on those traditions within older debates that inform and shape today's sincerity concerns. Linking Henri Peyre and Lionel Trilling's classical studies to recent research into sincerity rhetoric, the chapter considers discursive historical threads that prevail in contemporary readings of the term especially (although not only) in Russia. It explores the historical roots of the three thematic interconnections that dominate contemporary sincerity talk: sincerity and memory, sincerity and commodification, and sincerity and media. It also discusses the notion that contemporary views of sincerity are sociopolitically defined, skeptical by default, and media specific; how idiosyncratic they are for post-Soviet Russia; and how post-Soviet takes on sincerity use and revise historical and non-Russian readings of sincerity. Finally, it describes how sincerity emerged as a concern for cultural critics in mid-twentieth-century Western Europe and the United States, especially after World War II.

The Early History of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920–9

1958 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 41-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Pelling
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Early History ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Bolshevik Revolution ◽  
British Labour ◽  
History Of

THE Communist Party of Great Britain, like the Communist Parties of most other European countries, was founded shortly after the Russian Bolshevik revolution. It was unique among the Communist Parties of the major countries in being the result of an amalgamation of small revolutionary groups rather than a product of the schism of a large existing organization. The British Labour Party did not split as a result of the Russian revolution: the Communist Party grew up out of elements which for the most part had had a separate existence on the Labour Party's left wing.

The Changing Role of the International Court

1985 ◽  
Vol 20 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 182-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shabtai Rosenne
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
International Justice ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
International Court Of Justice ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
International Court ◽  
History Of ◽  
Changing Role

En s'efforçant, au lendemain de la guerre [1914 – 1918], de poser les bases d'une société de peuples régie par le droit, les fondateurs de cette communauté internationale nouvelle se rendaient pleinement compte qu'il ne saurait y avoir une société organisée sans un pouvoir judiciaire chargé de veiller, en dehors de toute préoccupation de politique et de force, à la stricte observation du droit. C'est dans cette conviction qu'ils ont prévu, dès l'origine, la création de la Cour permanente de Justice internationale.Feinberg in 1931Reviewing the history of the Permanent Court of International Justice and of the International Court of Justice from 1922—the World Court, a convenient but possibly misleading expression which embraces both the Permanent Court from 1922 to 1945 and the present International Court of Justice established as an integral part of the United Nations since—four clearly separated periods can be discerned. They run from 1922 to 1931, 1932 to 1940, 1946 to 1966, and from 1967 onwards.The establishment of the League of Nations and the Permanent Court after a cataclysmic war in Europe and the awe-inspiring Russian Revolution released a wave of euphoria upon the exhausted and war-weary peoples of what is now known as Western Europe, and they placed great hopes in the new League and Court.

Left-wing spectrum of the Czechoslovak political opposition in search of new solutions. The late 1980s to early 1990s

2021 ◽  
pp. 154-178
Author(s):  
Emil Vorachek ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Opposition ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Transformational Model ◽  
History Of ◽  
Alternative Scenarios ◽  
The Revolution

The chapter is devoted to the history of the formation and activity of left-wing organizations in the Czechoslovak political opposition from the late 1980s to early 1990s. Those organizations were made up of diverse ideological currents from both inside and outside the ranks of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (СPCz). Attempts to develop alternative scenarios of social, political, and socio-economic changes in the country are examined. The left-wing had difficulties adaptating to the changing conditions provided by the leader of the revolution - the Civil Forum - towards the liberal transformational model. In general, during the period examined in the chapter, the forces of the left, for various reasons, failed to realize their vision for future development.

The Politics of Everyday Life

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Trentmann
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Social History ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Social Science History ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
History Of ◽  
Turf Wars

As recently as 1985, the doyen of social science history in Germany, Hans-Ulrich Wehler, said the study of everyday life added little more than a bit of ‘gruel’ to the main course of history. Since then, the turf wars between social history, history from below, and cultural history have themselves become a thing of the past. It was during the 1950s–1970s that first sociologists, and then ‘new social’ historians, embraced the everyday. The flowering of consumption studies since would be unthinkable without the recognition that everyday life is an important – perhaps the most important – place people find meaning, develop habits, and acquire a sense of themselves and their world. This article offers an historical account of the changing scope and politics of everyday life. In contrast to recent discussions that have made the everyday appear the product of Western Europe after World War II, it traces the longer history of the everyday and the different politics of modernity which it has inspired.

BCLM: Forging Ahead: building a new urban history of the Black Country

Urban History ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Simon Briercliffe
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Public History ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
World War ◽  
Public Project ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Country Town

Abstract The recreation of urban historical space in museums is inevitably a complex, large-scale endeavour bridging the worlds of academic and public history. BCLM: Forging Ahead at the Black Country Living Museum is a £23m project recreating a typical Black Country town post-World War II. This article uses case-studies of three buildings – a Civic Restaurant, a record shop and a pub – to argue that urban-historical research methodology and community engagement can both create a vivid sense of the past, and challenge pervasive prejudices. It also argues that such a collaborative and public project reveals much about the urban and regional nature of industrial areas like the Black Country in this pivotal historical moment.

“An Unpopular Cause”: The Union of Australian Women’s Support for Aboriginal Rights

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-188
Author(s):  
Lisa Milner
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
World War ◽  
Collaborative Relationships ◽  
Aboriginal Rights ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
National Organisation

The Union of Australian Women (UAW) was a national organisation for left-wing women between World War II and the emergence of the women’s liberation movement. Along with other left-wing activists, UAW members supported Aboriginal rights, through their policies, publications and actions. They also attracted a number of Aboriginal members including Pearl Gibbs, Gladys O’Shane, Dulcie Flower and Faith Bandler. Focusing on NSW activity in the assimilation period, this article argues that the strong support of UAW members for Aboriginal rights drew upon the group’s establishment far-left politics, its relations with other women’s groups and the activism of its Aboriginal members. Non-Aboriginal members of the UAW gave practical and resourceful assistance to their Aboriginal comrades in a number of campaigns through the assimilation era, forming productive and collaborative relationships. Many of their campaigns aligned with approaches of the Communist Party of Australia and left-wing trade unions. In assessing the relationship between the UAW and Aboriginal rights, this article addresses a gap in the scholarship of assimilation era activism.

‘We, the South African Bolsheviks’: The Russian Revolution and South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 935-958
Author(s):  
Irina Filatova ◽  
Apollon Davidson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Black Population ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Socialist Revolution ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Soviet Russia

In South Africa, the Russian Revolution was admired by socialists and nationalists alike. The National Party soon stopped praising the Bolsheviks, but the effect of the Revolution on the nascent Communist Party was important and lasting. South African communists closely watched developments in Soviet Russia and established relations with the Communist International (Comintern) even before the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) was born. The Party’s ideology and policy were shaped by the Comintern’s ideas and instructions. In the 1920s and 1930s the struggle around the Comintern-imposed slogan of the independent native republic and the Comintern’s campaigns for ‘bolshevization’ nearly brought the party to its demise. But it survived, and its leadership took the Comintern’s ideals and ideas into the postwar era. The Comintern’s theoretical legacy, particularly its idea of a two-stage (national and socialist) revolution proved long-lasting. This idea became entrenched in the programs of the African National Congress, the party of national liberation and since 1994, the party of government. Even today a significant proportion of South Africa’s black population cherishes the vision of a radical revolution and demands its implementation.

The Vavilov Brothers

Slavic Review ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Joravsky
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Dominant Mode ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Scientific Socialism ◽  
Great Wall

Social science in the Russian revolution is as big a topic as theology in the Protestant Reformation. So it must be set aside with the inevitable “few observations,” guidelines for a future history of social thought in Soviet Russia. The dominant mode is that of Kafka's “Great Wall of China“: masters of scientific socialism, energetically rebuilding society on scientific principles, are gradually brought to suspect that they have no social science. Marx and Lenin come more and more to resemble Kafka's Emperor; their dying word would make everything clear, but it cannot reach the builders through the overwhelming crush of ordinary men and grubby circumstance. Reports that the word still reaches distant backward places like Vietnam only heighten the bewilderment.

CENSORING AN ‘ENGLISH RENEGADE’ IN GERMANY: THE CASE OF MORGAN PHILIPS PRICE

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
COLIN STORER
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Russian Revolution ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Security Services ◽  
British Military ◽  
Security Personnel ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Mind Set ◽  
First World

AbstractThe author and politician Morgan Philips Price (1885–1976) is best remembered today as a sympathetic eye-witness to the Russian Revolution and commentator on events in Soviet Russia throughout his long life. Less well known are his activities in Germany, to which he travelled in 1918 to observe the course of the November Revolution and better communicate his favourable view of Bolshevik Russia to Western Europe, and where he remained until 1924. In the summer of 1919, Price was arrested and held without trial in Berlin's Moabit prison, an incident which he later insisted was instigated by the British authorities. This article examines the extensive files on Price kept by the British security services in order to verify this interpretation of his arrest. In so doing, it will argue that a consideration of the case not only sheds light on an interesting aspect of Price's biography but also reveals much about the prevailing mind-set amongst some leading British military officers, security personnel, and politicians, and the methods by which they sought to neutralize perceived ‘revolutionary’ threats in the months after the First World War.

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