Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
100 years ago: British socialists clamour for peace

ON January 3 1918, Maxim Litvinov, a Russian communist living with his wife in a modest home in Hillfield Road, a turning off West End Lane, West Hampstead, read in a newspaper of a radio message from the Petrograd capital of the Bolshevik government, that he had been appointed ambassador to Britain.

“Citizen Litvinoff is appointed plenipotentiary in London,” he learned.

Less than two months earlier, Lenin’s Bolshevik government had withdrawn from its predecessor’s alliance with Britain and France in the war against Germany and Austria.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Jeremy Corbyn (second left) and Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South (second right) on the picket line outside London Euston train station, August 18, 2022
Features / 20 August 2025
20 August 2025

Corbyn and Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ represents the first attempt at mass socialist organisation since the CPGB’s formation in 1921, argues DYLAN MURPHY

INNOVATOR: Postgate, pictured in 1970
Features / 6 April 2025
6 April 2025
MAT COWARD introduces the creator of the Good Food Guide, communist and crime fiction writer – Raymond Postgate
RED FLAG FLYING: The Soviet flag is hoisted over the Reichst
Features / 30 January 2025
30 January 2025
NICK WRIGHT examines the British ruling class's complex relationship with fascism before, during and after the second world war
UPRISING: German sailors demonstrating at the port town of W
Features / 11 November 2024
11 November 2024
TONY COLLINS reveals the true story of the end of WWI – a story of rebellions, mutinies and strikes by soldiers and others determined to end the horrific slaughter, a story buried under official rituals and ceremonies