The April Theses: Lenin rearms the Bolsheviks

In the latest video from our "In Defence of October" series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Alan Woods - author of "Bolshevism: the Road to Revolution" - discusses the events surrounding Lenin's return to Russia on 16th April 1917.
With his "April Theses" Lenin sought to rearm the Bolsheviks politically, calling for revolutionaries to break with the liberal Provisional Government and putting forward instead the slogan of "All Power to the Soviets!"
Read the April Theses on our campaign page here: www.bolshevik.info/the-april-...

[@debrarowley4447]

The narrator of this splendid account of the April Theses did a fabulous job.

[@engin7787]

I congratulate you comrade Alan Wood at the bottom of my heart. The talk about April theses was wonderfully articulated and accurate!

[@theyoyoyo7833]

I mistakenly had this at 1.25x speed and wondered why he was talking so fast haha

[@fenceyhen4249]

1.25x with Alan Woods is normal talking speed lol

[@nemoest0]

Very good summation on this part of the 1917 revolution. Also enlightening thoughts on the challenges facing a revolutionary "leadership".
Concerning Stalin, I've never bought the statement that he would have been some mediocre figure! I don't think a mediocre person could have taken control of the USSR! I have no love for Stalin but I imagine he was a hard working organiser.
Good talk!

[@fenceyhen4249]

Imo it makes more sense to think about it as he was selected by the developing bureaucracy specifically because he was so mediocre and undeveloped as a revolutionary. During the upswing, he had nothing to offer and no independent theory, but during the counter-revolution that mediocrity as a revolutionary made him the ideal leader

[@andrewzhou4228]

@@fenceyhen4249 Trotsky's theory is anti-Lenin. Trotsky sold out USSR spies in USA, abusing his knowledge of socialist comrades and his authority of the revolution to meet the USA socialists. Stalin and the USSR carried out world revolution during the cold war. Trotsky couldn't do shit. He failed his world revolution BS in Poland, failed his assassination plot against Lenin, Stalin and the true old Bolsheviks, he and the other Mensheviks opportunists were ratted out and destroyed. Every Trotskyist I know repeats Khrushchev revisionist talking points. Extending their hatred for Stalin, into the hatred for all socialist experiences outside the Imperialist bloc.
I have yet met a single Trotskyist that does not repeat NATO propaganda about the global South.

[@bilalnasser740]

The description says that Alan is the editor, not author of Bolshevism

[@fenceyhen4249]

Nice

[@leftparty7975]

The featured artistic drawing that appears before the video begins is an Stalinist falsification. Stalin was never on that train!

[@IsmailofeRegime]

While there were indeed paintings that falsely portrayed Stalin as Lenin's "comrade-in-arms" during 1917, I don't think the man behind Lenin is meant to be him. Stalin-era Soviet historical texts, for all their efforts to exaggerate Stalin's role, make no claim that he was on the train.