Utopia Dystopia: The Irish left and Soviet Russia, 1917-43

Recorded January 22, 2018. A public lecture by Professor Emmet
O’Connor (University of Ulster) as part of the lecture series
Utopia Dystopia: The Russian Revolution One Hundred Years On.
Organised by the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies and the
Department of History in association with the Trinity Long Room
Hub. Professor O'Connor is introduced by Professor John Home.
Immediately following the February 1917 revolution in Russia, Irish
Labour identified with the Petrograd Soviet because it opposed the
world war and supported the principle of national
self-determination. Contact with the Bolsheviks was established
after the October revolution and the Irish Labour delegates sided
with the pro-Bolsheviks at the international socialist conference
at Berne in February 1919. However, the foundation of the
Comintern, and the related emergence of a far-left in Ireland, led
Labour to distance itself from Russia, and Irish links with the
Bolsheviks became confined to communist, Larkinite, and republican
groups. Moscow would shape the politics of Irish socialism and left
republicanism in the 1920s and 1930s, and the history of its
several, successive affiliates tells us much about centre-periphery
relations within the Comintern and the character of Comintern
influence on the smaller communist parties. Emmet O’Connor studied
at University College Galway and St John’s College, Cambridge.
Since 1985 he has lectured in History in Ulster University. Between
1983 and 2001, he co-edited Saothar, and is an honorary president
of the Irish Labour History Society. He has published widely on
labour history, including Reds and the Green: Ireland, Russia, and
the Communist Internationals, 1919-43 (UCD Press, 2004); Big Jim
Larkin: Hero or Wrecker? (UCD Press, 2015), and Derry Labour in the
Age of Agitation, 1889-1923 (Four Courts Press, 2016). At present
he is working on a study of the Irish in the International
Brigades. About Utopia Dystopia Series A century after the Russian
Revolution of 1917, its driving forces and its legacy, and indeed
even its start and end, are still the subject of debate. It
encompassed two key episodes in 1917, the February and October
revolutions. The February revolution (known as such because of
Russia’s use of the Julian calendar until February 1918) began on
March 8, 1917. This led to the collapse of the imperial rule by the
last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, and the establishment of a
democratic provisional government. The October revolution (which in
the Julian calendar began on October 24th and 25th) began on
November 6th and 7th led by Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik
party, and overthrew the provisional government to establish the
first Marxist state in the world. It generated the dominant model
of revolution for the remainder of the 20th century, engendered
communist parties in many countries and was exported to much of
Eastern Europe in the former of Soviet hegemony after victory in
1945, and helped shape the process of decolonisation. As we journey
through Ireland’s decade of commemorations and move ever closer to
considering the complex war of independence and civil war that
preceded the formation of the Irish State, this lecture series will
reflect on the aftermath of the Russian Revolution right up to
today and how it changed the course of world history at many
levels. The Utopia Dystopia lecture series has been organised by
Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies
and Department of History in association with the Trinity Long Room
Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute. see the full lecture
series here -
https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/whats-on/details/utopia-dystopia.php
Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/