Communist opposition in the USSR - early 1930s: the Verkhne-Uralsk Document

Join Historical Materialism and Haymarket Books for a discussion of the communist opposition in the USSR in the early 1930s: recently discovered (2018) Notebooks of the Verkhne-Uralsk prison—————————————————————————————————————————— In 2018, construction workers engaged in renovation work removed floorboards at the Verkhne-Uralsk prison. What they discovered was astonishing: a wide variety of hand-written newspapers, position papers and other documents written by inmates during the 1930s. At that time, the prison housed political prisoners of the left opposition to Stalin’s rule in the USSR. Historians from the anti-Stalinist Communist Opposition research team will report on their findings from this document collection, which sheds new light on anti-Stalin opposition activities and discussions in the early 1930’s in the Soviet Union . All three discussants are members of the History of the anti-Stalinist Communist Opposition in the USSR research team this is studying the notebooks. For those who wish to know more about the project and future events – you can contact the team on leftophist@gmail.com—————————————————————————————————————————— Speakers: Alexander FokinAleksandr Fokin is Candidate of Sciences in History, assistant professor Department of History of Russia Tyumen State University. From 2012-2013, he was a member of a grant project under the Federal Target Program "Research and Scientific-Pedagogical Personnel of Innovative Russia in 2009-2013". He has won numerous grants and scholarships, which include awards from: Vladimir Potanin’s Scholarship for young teachers (2012); the German Historical Institute in Moscow. (2013, 2017); the President of the Russian Federation for the young scientists. (2014-2015); A winner of Karamzinsky scholarship of the Prokhorov Foundation (2017, 2018); the Visegrad Scholarship at the Open Society Archives (2020). He was the first historian to have access to the found documents of the left-wing opposition and to begin studying them and is the initiator of a project to research and publish Bolshevik-Leninist documents. Alexei Gusev is s associate professor of history of the Moscow Lomonosov State University. He is the author of more than 80 publications on the history of socialist and labour movements, Trotskyism and Communist oppositions, social and political history of Russia, historiography and political theory. He is co-founder of the Victor Serge Public Library and the Praxis Research and Education Centre, and of the University Solidarity Union and a member of the Free Historical Society. Julia Gusev is a researcher of the history of revolutionary movements in France and Russia, and translator of French texts. She is the author of publications on the Great French revolution, Victor Serge, Daniel Guerin and Vsevolod Voline. She is co-founder of the Victor Serge Public Library and Praxis Research and Education Centre, and is a member of the Global Labour Institute’s International board, and a member of the Free Historical Society. Dr Inna Shtakser taught at The University of Texas at Austin (TX, US), at Dalhousie University (NS, Canada), at Tel-Aviv University (Israel) and at Tulane University ((LA, US). Her book titled The Making of Jewish Revolutionaries in the Pale: Poverty, Work, Community and the Transformation of Identity during the 1905-1907 Russian Revolution was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014. Her published articles deal with the cultural history of Jewish working-class radicalism, self-defence against the pogroms, political violence, and the anarchist movement, all in the Russian Empire. At the moment she is working on a manuscript dealing with anarchist groups in Odessa before WWI. —————————————————————————————————————————— This event is sponsored by Historical Materialism and Haymarket Books. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work. —————————————————————————————————————————— Support our work! Subscribe to our YouTube channel and like this video Twitter: @haymarketbooks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haymarketbooks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haymarketbooks/