History of Russia & the former Soviet Union

NATO and Ukraine escalate war against Russia

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 04:09:18 GMT

As shown by the latest Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia, NATO maneuvers in the Baltic Sea, and German-Ukrainian arms cooperation, NATO is de facto waging war against Russia and risking a nuclear catastrophe.

Trotsky’s My Life: An imperishable contribution to Marxism and world literature

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:48:22 GMT

Mehring Verlag, the publishing house of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) in Germany, will soon release a new German-language edition of Leon Trotsky’s My Life. Written from exile in 1929, the autobiography is at once a literary masterpiece and an essential document of revolutionary history.

Kremlin declares Memorial an “extremist” organization, shuts down data base of victims of the Great Terror

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 04:50:14 GMT

The assault on Memorial is a blow against the ability of workers and youth the world over to come to grips with the crimes of Stalinism.

Kazakhstan demolishes historic site where Trotsky once lived

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 04:00:41 GMT

The city of Almaty in Kazakhstan is currently demolishing the house where Leon Trotsky spent several weeks in exile from the Stalinist bureaucracy.

Roy Medvedev (1925–2026): A critical assessment

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 02:27:46 GMT

A critical assessment of Soviet dissident historian Roy Medvedev (1925–2026), examining both his courageous exposure of Stalinist crimes in Let History Judge and the political limitations that led him from reform-minded dissent to support for the Putin regime.

Comrades in Art: How Stalinism ruined the Artists’ International Association

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 18:34:28 GMT

In its early phase many members genuinely looked to revolutionary change—an orientation that was later crushed by the rise of Stalinism and the Popular Front policies it imposed on the communist parties and their periphery.

Public Meeting: Trotskyism and the fight for revolutionary leadership

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 18:06:03 GMT

At stake was the survival of Trotskyism, of revolutionary Marxism, as an organised political tendency. The ICFI’s victory over the WRP, and expulsion of those who refused to accept its socialist internationalist principles, was an event of global, historic significance.

Jochen Hellbeck’s “World Enemy Number 1, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Fate of the Jews”

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:31:56 GMT

With great empathy for the Soviet people, the German-American historian Jochen Hellbeck deliberately opposes the efforts to minimize the crimes of Nazism and the decisive contribution of the Red Army and the Soviet people to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Central to Hellbeck’s analysis is the link between Nazi anti-Semitism and anti-Communism.

Historical issues arising from the Stalinist Turkish Communist Party’s mass meeting in Ankara

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 19:19:24 GMT

The TKP’s meeting brought to the fore vital issues that demonstrate the relevance of the historical struggle between Trotskyism and Stalinism.

Attacking the WSWS, the Communist Party Marxist–Kenya salutes the gravedigger of the revolution, Stalin

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 18:25:08 GMT

The CPM-K proudly proclaims its unrestrained backing for the monstrous crimes of Stalinism that destroyed the Bolshevik Party, annihilated workers’ democracy, liquidated revolutionary Marxism through terror, and subordinated the international working class to the interests of a privileged bureaucratic caste.

Ukraine as the Object of World Counterrevolution

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 05:56:30 GMT

This is the first English translation of Mikhail Pavlovich's 1920 pamphlet on the civil war in Ukraine.

Introduction: Ukraine as the Object of World Counterrevolution, by Mikhail Pavlovich

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 05:55:59 GMT

We hope that the publication of this translation and the rediscovery of Mikhail Pavlovich will contribute to the political education of the working class, now confronted, once again, with imperialist war and fascist barbarism.

Russian court sentences members of Marxist circle to draconian prison terms

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 05:07:42 GMT

The media coverage and the extreme prison sentences make clear that the Russian state seeks to use this case, above all, to intimidate left-wing opposition to the Putin regime.

Jeremy Corbyn attacks Zarah Sultana’s demand for nationalisation against the billionaires

Sun, 07 Dec 2025 18:11:33 GMT

Seated alongside Corbyn, Owen Jones cited Sultana’s call to “nationalise the entire economy”, asking Corbyn, “What do you think of that?” Corbyn replied, “I’m not sure what that means. I’m honestly not sure.”

Dmitry Barinov’s “Zinoviev, Trotsky, University”: An important contribution to the history of the Left Opposition

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 04:33:30 GMT

Barinov has produced the most extensive account yet of the work of the Opposition in Leningrad, its structure, leading figures and activities among students and the working class.

The Stalinist terror in the Communist International and its impact

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 01:03:24 GMT

This lecture was delivered by Katja Rippert, a member of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (SGP), the German section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), at the SEP (US) 2025 International Summer School.

Political genocide in the USSR (1936-1940): The Moscow Trials and the Dewey Commission

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 01:41:34 GMT

This is the first part of the lecture “Political Genocide in the USSR (1936-1940)” delivered by Fred Williams, Katja Rippert, and Alejandro Lopez to the 2025 Summer School of the Socialist Equality Party (US) on the history of the Security and the Fourth International investigation.

Trotsky’s The Revolution Betrayed, the counter-revolutionary Stalinist bureaucracy and the call for a political revolution in the Soviet Union

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 01:16:14 GMT

The following report was delivered by Jordan Shilton to the 2025 Summer School of the Socialist Equality Party (US) on the history of the Security and the Fourth International investigation.

In memory of Zorya Serebryakova (1923-2024), daughter of Old Bolshevik and Opposition leader Leonid Serebryakov

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 03:50:27 GMT

Zorya Serebryakova's fate and that of her family are a tragic embodiment of the meaning of the term “political genocide.”

The Tactics and Tasks of the Leninist Opposition

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 01:19:33 GMT

This document is the ninth and last chapter of “The Crisis of the Revolution and the Tasks of the Proletariat”, a major programmatic document produced by leading Soviet Trotskyists imprisoned in the Verkhne-Uralsk Political Isolator in the summer of 1932.

The Stalinist bureaucracy launches a war on the Trotskyist movement

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 23:56:44 GMT

This lecture documents the beginning war on the Trotskyist movement in the USSR in 1928-1932.

The economic strategy of Leon Trotsky

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 19:22:57 GMT

This is the first part of the lecture “Internationalist Socialism vs. Nationalist Reformism” delivered by Clara Weiss, Chris Marsden and Peter Symonds to the 2025 Summer School of the Socialist Equality Party (US) on the history of the Security and the Fourth International investigation.

Manifesto of the Communist International to the Workers of the World

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 00:28:09 GMT

This manifesto was delivered at the First Congress of the Communist International in Moscow and unanimously adopted at the Congress’s final session on March 6, 1919.

What is the Permanent Revolution?

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 00:28:05 GMT

In this concluding chapter of The Permanent Revolution (1929), Trotsky distills the essential postulates of his theory of permanent revolution, in opposition to the Stalinist doctrine of “socialism in one country.”

Stalinist provocateur goes unchallenged at Socialist Workers Party’s “Marxism 2025” Russia Course

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:58:19 GMT

A Stalinist who denounced Leon Trotsky as an “agent of the Gestapo” was shielded from criticism by SWP speakers.

In memory of Nathan Steinberger: A fighter against fascism and Stalinism

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 23:26:15 GMT

July 16 marks the 115th anniversary of the birth of Nathan Steinberger, a Jewish socialist and survivor of Stalin's terror in the Soviet Union.

The Marxist movement and the fight against antisemitism and Zionism

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 04:15:16 GMT

Kessler's books provide irrefutable evidence that the most powerful and consistent critique of both antisemitism and Zionism emanated from the revolutionary internationalist wing in the workers’ movement.

How the Ukrainian government is trying to ban and erase the Victory Day holiday

Wed, 21 May 2025 05:09:33 GMT

In Kiev, police harassed any visitors who dared to commemorate the victims of the Nazi attack in any way other than laying flowers. At the Memorial of Eternal Glory, police tried to detain two different women for playing the popular Soviet song “Victory Day” on their phones.

Victory Day in Russia: The real historical lessons for the working class

Mon, 19 May 2025 04:19:16 GMT

Building upon the legacy of Stalinist falsifications of the history of the Second World War, the Putin regime falsely portrays its reactionary invasion of Ukraine as a continuation of the struggle waged by the Soviet masses against fascism and imperialism.

The Soviet victory over Nazism and the fight against imperialism today

Tue, 06 May 2025 22:14:02 GMT

This speech was given by Andrei Ritsky, a representative of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists in Russia, at the International May Day 2025 Online Rally, held Saturday, May 3.

The fight against German militarism 80 years after World War II

Tue, 06 May 2025 01:34:16 GMT

The WSWS is posting here both the video and text of the speech by Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Germany) National Committee member Katja Rippert to the International May Day 2025 Online Rally.

What is the Revolutionary Communist International proclaimed by the former International Marxist Tendency of Alan Woods?—Part 2

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 18:40:52 GMT

Former International Marxist Tendency leader Ted Grant’s claim to orthodoxy was decisively refuted by his attitude to the emergence of Pabloite liquidationism within the Fourth International. Indeed, the theoretical revisions of Grant were a clear anticipation of those associated with Pabloism.

What is the Revolutionary Communist International proclaimed by the former International Marxist Tendency of Alan Woods?—Part 1

Fri, 27 Dec 2024 20:02:18 GMT

The RCI continues the decades-long efforts of the tendency initially led by Ted Grant to oppose the Fourth International and to orient workers and youth to the Stalinist, trade union and social democratic bureaucracies—under the cover of a torrent of radical-sounding rhetoric.

A reply to an anarchist’s falsification of the Leon Trotsky commemoration on Prinkipo

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 20:02:39 GMT

The event was covered by many national and local media outlets and widely discussed on social media before and after the event in Turkey. However, a former Maoist and current anarchist published an article on his website denouncing and misrepresenting David North’s remarks.

The campaign to free Bogdan Syrotiuk and the fight against war

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 03:21:55 GMT

This report introduced the discussion and vote on the resolution "Free Bogdan Syrotiuk", which was passed unanimously by the delegates of the Eighth Congress of the Socialist Equality Party (US).

Russian Neo-Stalinists, Maoists oppose the campaign to free Ukrainian socialist Bogdan Syrotiuk

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 02:56:29 GMT

The response by these tendencies to the fight to free Bogdan Syrotiuk must serve as an object lesson for workers and young people in Russia and internationally as to the character of the forces that have emerged out of the wreckage of Stalinism.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL): The alliance of Stalinism and middle-class radicalism

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 03:51:58 GMT

An organization and its class character must be judged, not by what it says of itself, but on the basis of its history and program.

German historian Mario Kessler denounces persecution of Bogdan Syrotiuk

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 03:09:56 GMT

Mario Kessler is an expert in Jewish history and the history of the workers movement.

The results of capitalist restoration and the fight for Trotskyism in the former USSR

Tue, 07 May 2024 18:45:32 GMT

This is the text of the speech given by Andrei Ritsky, a representative of the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists in Russia, at the International May Day 2024 Online Rally.

The Dmitriev Affair: A confused and confusing film about the historian of Stalin’s Great Terror

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 23:57:16 GMT

Yuri Dmitriev’s case is important but Gorter’s film is confused and superficial and serves to feed into the anti-Russian war propaganda of NATO.

The danger of the imperialist carve-up of the former Soviet Union and the tasks of the working class

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 02:15:24 GMT

Underlying the seemingly crazed escalation of the war by the imperialist powers are profound historical and economic driving forces.

Instant denials of Ukrainian intelligence involvement in Russian terror attack are not credible

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 05:00:03 GMT

The principal mouthpieces of US imperialism, the New York Times and the Washington Post, have initiated a campaign to deny the all but obvious involvement of the US and Ukraine in this attack.

Leipzig Book Fair: David North to present his book Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the Twenty-First Century

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 00:22:02 GMT

Mehring Verlag will be presenting its new book titles at the upcoming Leipzig Book Fair. The highlight will be the launch of Leon Trotsky and the Struggle for Socialism in the Twenty-First Century by David North.

Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson: The Russian oligarchy pleads for “peaceful coexistence” with imperialism

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 05:30:22 GMT

The working class must draw important lessons from this interview. It exposes the political and historical bankruptcy of the oligarchic regime stemming from the Stalinist betrayal of the October Revolution and the subsequent restoration of capitalism.

Protests erupt in Russia over sentencing of Bashkir nationalist Fail Alsynov

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 02:12:52 GMT

Alsynov, a leading Bashkir nationalist, speaks for sections of the Bashkir elites and upper middle class that see the Putin regime as an obstacle to their own self-enrichment.

Greetings by the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Halil Çelik’s death

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:33:20 GMT

This is the tribute given by the Young Guard of Bolshevik-Leninists to Halil Çelik, founder and leader of the Sosyalist Eşitlik Grubu, who died suddenly at the age of 57 on December 31, 2018.

Trotskyists in the former Soviet Union commemorate centenary of Lenin’s death

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 04:08:44 GMT

On Sunday, January 21, the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists, a Trotskyist youth organization in the former Soviet Union, held an event to commemorate the centenary since the death of Lenin at the age of 53.

100 years since the death of Vladimir Lenin

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 04:50:28 GMT

Lenin was a theoretical and political genius who founded the Bolshevik Party and led a revolution that not only transformed Russia and created the Soviet Union, but gave an immense impulse to all the revolutionary political struggles of the 20th century.

“Comrade Helen was connected to us through the great ideas of the October Revolution”

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 04:42:20 GMT

We are publishing here the tribute to Helen Halyard from the Young Guard of Bolshevik Leninists, a Trotskyist youth organization in the former Soviet Union.

Trotsky’s October 23, 1923 letter to the Central Committee and Central Control Commission of the Russian Communist Party

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 03:03:07 GMT

Trotsky’s October 23, 1923 letter is the first comprehensive document in the inner-party struggle in which he was forced to answer, in detail, not only political attacks but also distortions of the history of the Bolshevik Party and the October Revolution.