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Legacies of a Revolutionary Century: Reflections on the 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution of 1917

Humanities Center, Conference Room D

Presented by Dr. Stephen Hanson, College of William & Mary 
Vice Provost for International Affairs
Director of the Wendy & Emery Reeves Center for International Students
Lettie Pate Evens Professor in the Department of Government

The breakdown of tsarism and the triumph of Bolshevism in Russia a century ago ushered in an era during which visions of revolutionary social transformation both galvanized and terrified people around the world. Now we seemingly live in a more cynical age. The centennial of the Russian Revolution is receiving almost no public attention in the country where it took place, while in the West, the erstwhile Cold War foreign policy consensus -- developed in large part in response to the threat of Soviet communism -- is rapidly fracturing. A reexamination of the lessons of the Bolshevik Revolution can help us understand precisely how the ideological 20th century gave rise to the post-ideological 21st century. 

This lecture is sponsored by the Russian Studies Program and the Skalny Center for Polish and Central European Studies.