The Socialist Equality Party (Canada) and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality will be hosting a showing of Tsar to Lenin at the Université de Montréal on the evening of Wednesday, February 13.
First released in 1937, Tsar to Lenin presents an extraordinary cinematic account of the Russian Revolution—from the mass uprising which overthrew the centuries-old Tsarist regime in February 1917, to the Bolshevik-led insurrection eight months later that established the first socialist workers’ state, and the final victory in 1921 of the new Soviet regime over counter-revolutionary forces after a three-year-long civil war.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 ranks among the seminal events of the twentieth century. The victory of the Bolshevik Party and the establishment of the Soviet Union not only abolished capitalism in the largest country on earth. The example of a victorious socialist revolution politically radicalised the working class throughout the world, inspiring the masses with the possibility of an alternative to capitalism and imperialism.
In the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991—the final betrayal of the Stalinist bureaucracy that usurped power from the working class under conditions of the revolution’s isolation—the propagandists of the ruling class declared that “socialism was dead” and that the lack of any alternative to capitalism represented the “End of History.” However today, under conditions where capitalism confronts its greatest crisis since the 1930s, the events of 1917 assume immense contemporary significance.
Based on archival footage assembled over more than a decade by the documentary filmmaker Herman Axelbank (1900-1979), Tsar to Lenin provides an unparalleled film record of a revolutionary movement, embracing millions, which “shook the world” and changed the course of history.
Following the screening of the film, there will be a question-and-answer session.
Wednesday, February 13 at 7 PM
Université de Montréal
Pavillon Jean-Brillant
Room B-4320
3200 rue Jean-Brillant
Near the Université de Montréal Metro station.