Essay #7: Geoffrey Swain, 'The Russian Anarchists and the Treaty of Brest Litovsk'

In this essay, Geoffrey Swain looks at the impact of the Brest Litovsk Treaty (3 March 1918) on the fragile relationship between the Russian Anarchists and the Bolsheviks. The Russian Anarchists had welcomed Russia’s First Revolution of 1917, when the Tsar was overthrown; they were prepared to work with the Bolsheviks during the Second Revolution, the October insurrection which brought Kerensky’s Provisional Government to an end; however, they reserved the right to start a Third Revolution when the statism inherent in Bolshevik thinking became a threat to worker self-government. That moment came with Lenin’s decision to sign the Treaty of Brest Litovsk. 

Geoffrey Swain is Professor Emeritus of the University of Glasgow and spent his career writing on the history of Russia and Eastern Europe. Major publications include The Origins of the Russian Civil War (1996) and Trotsky (2006), and a second edition of his Short History of the Russian Revolution will be published by Bloomsbury later this year. For more information see University of Glasgow - Schools - School of Social & Political Sciences - Our Staff - Prof Geoffrey R Swain. 

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