russian revolution

For this conversation we welcome Winston James to the podcast. Winston James is the author of A Fierce Hatred of Injustice: Claude McKay’s Jamaica and His Poetry of Rebellion, The Struggles of John Brown Russwurm: The Life and Writings of a Pan-Africanist Pioneer 1799-1851, and Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia: Caribbean Radicalism in Early Twenty Century America. James has held a number of teaching positions, most recently as a professor of history at UC Irvine.

James joins us to talk about his latest work, Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik. The book examines McKay’s life from his early years in Jamaica to his years at Tuskegee and Kansas State University and his time in Harlem, to his life in London. Drawing on a wide variety of sources, James offers a rich and detailed chronicle of McKay’s life, political evolution, and the historical, political, and intellectual contexts that shaped him. The work also locates McKay’s closest interlocutors, and those he debated with, as well as McKay’s experiences as a worker and within communist and anarcho-syndicalist organizations like the Worker’s Socialist Federation and the IWW. 

In part 1 of the conversation, we focus on McKay’s early years in Jamaica up through the Red Summer of 1919. James begins with a discussion of McKay’s family, his life in Jamaica, his brief stint as a constable in Kingston, his early poetry and his influence on the Negritude movement. James also discusses the appeal of the Russian Revolution and of the Third International to Black people in this era, and contextualizes the terror of white vigilante violence in the post war period in the US and how Black people fought back against it. As a content notice some of this discussion is a brief but explicit examination of the abhorrent character of anti-black violence of the period. We close part 1 of the conversation with a discussion of McKay’s “If We Must Die,” the context of armed self-defense, the context of fighting back, from which it emerged and its global resonance with the emerging Black radicalism of the period and with radical movements decades after its release.

In part two - which will come out in the next couple of days - we will focus on McKay’s debates, positions, and activism within the spaces of revolutionary Black Nationalism and the Communist left of the period.

We will include a link to the book in the show notes. We both highly recommend it.

If you would like to purchase Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik by Winston James consider picking it up from the good folks at Massive Bookshop.

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Part 2 of my Romanova series. In this episode I discuss the childhoods of the often over-looked Romanov daughters: Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. 

Spending much of their youth sequestered away at the family palace or aboard the imperial yacht, their world was simple, idyllic and profoundly isolated. To the press and the public, they were nothing more than four pretty faces. And in the century since that view has continued, their own personalities and experiences forgotten in the infamous story of their family's downfall.

The reality is that these four sisters each had their own hopes, desires and humors. Extremely devoted to their parents and little brother, but hungry to see the world. Coming of age against a backdrop of family illness, sinister plots, and rising political violence.

For over a century the strange and tragic story of the Romanovs (the last imperial rulers of Russia) has captivated the world. It is a story of courtly intrigue, political uprisings, assassinations and the occult. But at the center of it all is the story of a family.

In this two part series I will be discussing the Romanov women, Alexandra and her daughters.

Alexandra, or Alix, not cut out for the role of Empress, devoted herself instead to motherhood. Believing that through sheer devotion and piety she might overcome the tragedies of her past and provide a life of sheltered tranquility for her family. But despite her many good intentions, nothing could keep out the "family curse" that flowed in her veins, or the creeping dread and paranoia that would begin to consume her every waking moment.

In this special edition podcast Jay Beilis shares the story of his grandfather and the legacy of one of the most significant events in modern history.  

Mendel Beilis never sought celebrity nor to profit from his suffering even though his case gripped Russia, and the world, even more than the Dreyfus affair had gripped France.  His conduct – resisting the pressure to implicate himself or other jews – saved his countrymen from a pogrom.  Close to his death, when he was asked what was the enduring impression of the trial he paid tribute to the Russian Gentiles who had helped him.  It was kindness, in particular the kindness of many ordinary Russians before and during his imprisonment, that mitigated his bitterness towards his persecutors.

It is in this spirit of kindness that this podcast has been created.

(credits: Jay Beilis, Jeremy Simcha Garber, Mark S. Stein; Music by http://filmtv-tracks.com)

An issue that caused significant worries for the British Government in 1918 and 1919. After they realised that the promise made by Prime Minister David Lloyd George that they would be demobilised extremely quickly after the war. This was one of the critical promises made in the 1918 General Election.  In 1919 there were over 50 soldiers mutinies and 100,000 soldiers refused to obey orders.

Dual power is falling apart. After the uprising of the July Days and the disastrous Kerensky offensive, the Provisional Government looks to the military for help against the Soviet. The new Prime Minister Kerensky appoints a right-wing general as Commander-in-Chief and enters negotiations for an alliance against the left. Talks break down, and the masses are armed in response to a right-wing threat. Kerensky’s popularity plummets and the Bolsheviks begin to win majorities in Soviets and labor organizations throughout the Empire.  The masses punish the moderate parties for their collaboration with the bourgeoisie and the shouts for “All Power to the Soviets” grows louder and louder. As the Provisional Government appears poised for collapse, Lenin returns and urges an immediate insurrection.

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The Grand Duchess Anastasia did not survive her family's 1918 execution, and did not go on to live in the US.