Since Lenin and the Bolsheviks were acutely conscious of the experience of Revolutionary France from 1789, they remained sensitive to the menace of counter-revolution long after October 1917. Partly by means of comparison with France, this lecture will explore the reasons why such a threat never materialised, looking in particular at the weakness of the nationalist Right in 1917 and the fissures within the Russian Orthodox Church that prevented it from channelling the strong currents of popular religiosity that continued to run through Revolutionary Russia. (An illustrated lecture)

Simon Dixon is Bernard Pares Professor of Russian History at UCL SSEES. Among his books are The Modernisation of Russia 1676-1825 (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Catherine the Great (profile Books, 2009), which was shortlisted for the Longman – History Today Book of the Year Prize. He graduated in History from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he became a Junior Research Fellow after studying for a PhD at SSEES under the supervision of Professor Geoffrey Hosking. Before returning to SSEES in 2008, he taught at the Universities of Glasgow and Leeds, where he was Professor of Modern History from 1999. From 2010 to 2014, he sat on the Council of the Royal Historical Society, and gave the Society’s Prothero Lecture in 2017 on ‘Orthodoxy and Revolution; The Restoration of the Russian Patriarchate in 1917. Since 2015 he has been chairman of the Literary Committee of the Russian Booker Prize.

Tea, Coffee & Biscuits at 6.30 pm. Talk starts at 7.00pm.

* - in cooperation with The Great Britain - Russia Society

Please note that this event will be in English, without translation into Russian.