Skip to main content
Midwives of socialist transformation
MARY DAVIS recommends a book revealing the indispensable – and frequently ignored – role played by women in the Bolshevik Revolution
Leading to revolution: International Women’s Day in Petrograd, 1917

The Women’s Revolution: Russia 1905-1917
by Judy Cox
(Haymarket Books, £16.99)

PREMISED on the indisputable fact that women’s role in the revolutions in Russia of 1905 and the two revolutions of 1917 have been largely hidden from history, Judy Cox’s book redresses the imbalance in the torrent of publications two years ago marking the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution which largely ignored it.

Her slim volume is thus a welcome antidote. Using secondary sources, she challenges the dominant narrative from a socialist-feminist perspective and introduces the reader to many lesser-known Bolshevik women.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
A woman showing signs of depression (picture posed by a mode
International Women's Day 2025 / 8 March 2025
8 March 2025
Women’s hard-fought-for rights are facing sustained and serious ideological attack. Let this International Women’s Day be a call to arms, says Professor MARY DAVIS
Memorial candles are lit during a Holocaust Memorial Day com
Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 / 27 January 2025
27 January 2025
The proponents and enablers of Holocaust distortion and anti-communism now have increasing political power and influence in a number of European countries, obstructing an understanding of the reality of fascism’s crimes, warns MARY DAVIS
A cartoon in the satirical magazine Punch after the letter w
Features / 29 October 2024
29 October 2024
The infamous forged missive exposed how the Establishment worked to discredit Labour despite its loudly declared anti-communist stance, writes MARY DAVIS, analysing the 1924 government’s destruction
Protesters during a Million Women Rise march from Oxford Str
International Women's Day 2024 / 8 March 2024
8 March 2024
Despite some steps forward for women’s rights, the tasks ahead remain daunting as in many parts of the world these rights are being eroded and the clock is being turned back, argues MARY DAVIS
Similar stories
Features / 3 November 2024
3 November 2024
SAM BROWSE examines how Lenin’s analysis remains relevant for confronting modern challenges of inequality, climate change and rising fascism ahead of an important discussion with the acclaimed historian and activist Paul le Blanc
Demonstrators outside the Amba Hotel at Marble Arch, London,
Features / 10 September 2024
10 September 2024
TONY COLLINS looks at the evidence he has uncovered in his research on our early labour movement of deep and hostile police infiltration that ruined lives in the last century
Thousands march to Trafalgar Square in central London, to ce
Opinion / 17 June 2024
17 June 2024
The reliance on political parties to bring about socialist change in Britain has proved a total failure says FAWZI IBRAHIM. Time for the true representatives of the working class, the trade unions, to take a direct role in asserting their will on the government of the day
(L to R) Vladimir Ulyanov in his gymnasium years, this photo
Books / 23 May 2024
23 May 2024
STEVE ANDREW relishes a history of Lenin’s childhood and adolescence that gives a useful insight his personality