International Conference at the European University Institute, Florence 5–7 October 2017

The fall of the Russian Tsar and the rise to power of the Bolsheviks sent shock waves across Europe and beyond, initiating a period of momentous revolutionary transformations. Indeed, the protagonists of 1917 did not envisage their endeavour as an exclusively Russian phenomenon, but as the first act of the world revolution. As Lenin reflected in 1921, ‘we have made the start. When, at what date and time, and the proletarians of which nation will complete this process is not important. The important thing is that the ice has been broken’.

The conference aims to bring together many often-neglected geographic and ideological peripheries of the revolutionary process. Rather than focus on the familiar stories of the German, Austrian, or Hungarian revolutions and the debates and schisms within the major Social Democratic parties, we aim to discuss movements and actors that participated in the major transitional processes in Europe that followed the Russian Revolutions but that have traditionally fallen outside of the purview of the historiography. These include not only political organisations of the radical left, but a medley of fellow travellers: national and independence movements, bourgeois intellectuals and artists, feminist activists, religious militants, anti- colonial groups, and others who, even for a short period, associated themselves with the promise of radical change heralded by the Russian Revolution.

Participants with no institutional support can apply for funding of their travel and accommodation expenses.

Please send an abstract (circa 300 words) with a short biographical note to the organisers by March 31, 2017 to: EuropeanRevolution@EUI.eu

Further information here.
Download call for papers: CfP_European_Revolution_Conference