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Film: Lenin and the 1917 Revolutions
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
You wait a lifetime for a revolution and then two come along at once! Such was 1917 in Russia. As the world seemed in chaos and Russia and the Russian people began to collapse, Lenin and the Bolsheviks saw their opportunity and overthrew the government to create the first communist...
Film: Lenin and the 1917 Revolutions
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Film: Lenin, the 1905 Russian Revolution and WWI
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
The founders of Communism, Marx and Engels, had created a set of social structures and industrial developments that were believed necessary for Communism to be achieved. Imperial Russia did not fit these conditions and yet at the start of the twentieth century Russian revolutionaries were some of the most active...
Film: Lenin, the 1905 Russian Revolution and WWI
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Film: Lenin's early thought
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
As Lenin’s own political outlook and beliefs developed so did the European movements of Socialism and Communism. Groups emerged that wanted to radically change society and social structures. Lenin positioned himself as one of the leaders and crucially one of the thinkers behind these new ideas and movements.
Dr Lara...
Film: Lenin's early thought
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Real Lives: Colonel James Skinner
Historian feature
The story of the British in India is a complex one and further nuances are provided by the existence of several ‘Eurasians’ who had both British and Indian heritage. Here Arunansh Goswami reflects on the life and achievements of one of these, James Skinner, who had a Scottish father and an Indian...
Real Lives: Colonel James Skinner
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Film: Lenin's origins
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
Lenin was born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov in 1870. This film takes us through his middle-class origins, how he was radicalised by the world he saw around him, especially following the execution of his brother, and how the future politician and revolutionary developed amongst the extremes of Imperial Russian society.
In...
Film: Lenin's origins
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Film: Khrushchev - Foreign Policy
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Alexander Titov (Queen's University of Belfast), looks at the early thaw in relations between the Soviet Union and the West after the death of Stalin, the resolution of outstanding issues such as the Korean War, the division of Austria, and Khruschev's resetting of relations with China and...
Film: Khrushchev - Foreign Policy
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Film: Khrushchev - De-Stalinization
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Alexander Titov (Queen's University of Belfast), discusses how and why Khrushchev opened up discussions about Stalin and his legacy, the risk that people would blame the current leadership once the scale of repressions became known. Dr Titov examines the both the content of the secret speech (Stalin’s...
Film: Khrushchev - De-Stalinization
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Film: Khrushchev - After Stalin
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Alexander Titov (Queen's University of Belfast), discusses the leading figures jockeying for power after Stalin died, the short period of collective leadership, growing calls for reform within the Soviet Union and how Khrushchev gradually sidelined all of his rivals on his way to becoming Premiere of...
Film: Khrushchev - After Stalin
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Film: Khrushchev - Background
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Alexander Titov (Queen's University of Belfast), provides a profile of Khrushchev’s background and personality and how these influenced his politics and ideas.
Dr Titov takes us on a journey from Khrushchev's peasant beginnings in Kursk, his rapid rise in the communist party, his role in the purges, to...
Film: Khrushchev - Background
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Film: Yeltsin and the West
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Edwin Bacon (University of Lincoln), looks how the positive relationship established between Mikhail Gorbachev and President Reagan and his successor President Bush continued with the ascension of Yeltsin to the presidency of Russia. Dr Bacon discusses how Russian perceptions of the West changed with the expansion...
Film: Yeltsin and the West
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Film: Yeltsin's second term and legacy
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this final film on Yeltsin, Dr Edwin Bacon (University of Lincoln), discusses Yeltin’s second term and how his public profile went from hero to growing embarrassment. Importantly he examines how Yeltin’s search for a successor that would secure his family’s security led to rapid changes in Prime Ministers in...
Film: Yeltsin's second term and legacy
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Film: Yeltsin and the Oligarchs
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
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Film: Yeltsin and the Oligarchs
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Film: Yeltsin's agenda
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Edwin Bacon (University of Lincoln), discusses the emergence of Russia as a democratic country and its nascent capitalist economy. He outlines how the issues Yeltsin faced in government such as the 1993 constitutional crisis, followed by the shelling by tanks in Moscow led to Yeltsin rewriting...
Film: Yeltsin's agenda
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Film: Yeltsin and the fall of the Soviet Union
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Edwin Bacon (University of Lincoln), explores the role Yeltsin played in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Dr Bacon takes us from the fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of nationalism in the new republics, and how Yeltsin became Russia’s first elected head of state....
Film: Yeltsin and the fall of the Soviet Union
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Film: Yeltsin and Russia in the late 1980s
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Edwin Bacon (University of Lincoln), examines the political and economic repercussions of Gorbachev’s reforms. Dr Bacon reflects upon the dire state of the Soviet economy in the late 1980s/early 1990s and how that led to change but also unrest. In particular he addresses the way that...
Film: Yeltsin and Russia in the late 1980s
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Film: Yeltsin - Early Life
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Dr Edwin Bacon (University of Lincoln) introduces us to the young Boris Yeltsin, a true product of the Stalinist years. He explores how a young Yeltsin caught the eye of the Communist officials, allowing him to work his way up from a civil engineer to the politburo. Dr...
Film: Yeltsin - Early Life
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Film: Stalin - World War II
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Professor James Harris (University of Leeds) examines Stalin and the Soviet preparations for global war. The reasons why Stalin agreed the Nazi-Soviet pact are explored as are Stalin’s response to invasion in 1941. Professor Harris addresses the impact the war had on the USSR and how that...
Film: Stalin - World War II
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Film: Stalin & the Great Terror
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
Why was the Soviet Union so violent in the 1930s? In this film, Professor James Harris (University of Leeds) looks at differing interpretations of the origins of the Great Terror; was it the story of one man trying to obtain total control, was it a result of collective frustration against...
Film: Stalin & the Great Terror
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Film: Stalin - The Early Soviet Economy & the preparation for war
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Professor James Harris (University of Leeds) examines how the New Economic Policy transformed the Soviet economy after the civil war, and looks at Stalin’s central role in that recovery. Key during that period was Stalin’s dispute with Nikolai Bukharin and the Great Break, and the drive to...
Film: Stalin - The Early Soviet Economy & the preparation for war
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Film: Stalin - Rise to Power
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
In this film, Professor James Harris (University of Leeds) discusses how interpretations have changed over the years regarding Stalin’s rise to power, and his transformation from rural Georgian to the ‘Man of Steel’ – Stalin. For many years, western interpretations were strongly influenced by his rival Trotsky, who defined Stalin...
Film: Stalin - Rise to Power
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Film: Stalin - Early Life
Film Series: Power and authority in Russia and the Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin was born Joseph Besarionis dze Jughashvili in 1878 into a poor family in Gori, Georgia, part of the then Russian Empire. Stalin attended the Tbilisi Spiritual Seminary while his own radicalism grew, before joining the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He edited the party's newspaper, Pravda, and raised funds for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction through...
Film: Stalin - Early Life
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Why White Liberals Fail: United States politics in an election year
Historian feature
Paula Kitching interview with Professor Anthony J. Badger about his latest book.
2024 is an election year in the United States. For many in the UK and around the world the US political system can be confusing, with simple processes seemingly more complex than you would expect. It is not just the system...
Why White Liberals Fail: United States politics in an election year
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Forbidden friendships: taverns, nightclubs, bottle bars and emancipation
Historian article
The modern gay-rights movement has its origins in a 1960s New York ‘bottle bar’, but as Ben Jerrit explains, drinking establishments have been centres of gay culture and social resistance for centuries.
Forbidden friendships: taverns, nightclubs, bottle bars and emancipation
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The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Historian article
The Nazis came to power in 1933 with an openly racist and antisemitic set of policies. In the years leading up to the start of the Second World War, those policies were carried out through legislation and governmental actions, with the support of many members of German society. Once the war started,...
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
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Arctic aspirations: Britain and Icelandic independence, 1917–18
Historian article
As it sought independence, Iceland gained a new significance for Britain during the latter stages of the First World War, writes Ben Markham.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Iceland was not an independent country. Isolated in the North Atlantic Ocean, it was nonetheless considered an integral part of...
Arctic aspirations: Britain and Icelandic independence, 1917–18
