Russia and the British Left: From the 1848 Revolutions to the General Strike

by David Burke

Overview

The study of native ‘Marxisms' in Britain throws light on what many historians have referred to as ‘the enemy within'. In this book, David Burke looks at the activities of the Russian political emigre community in Britain, and in particular the role of one Russian-Jewish political family: the Rothsteins. Theodore Rothstein and his son Andrew, along with his sister-in-law Zelda Kahan and her husband, W. P. Coates, together played an important part in the formative years of the Communist Party of Great Britain and were closely monitored by the British secret service. This led to claims that British communism was effectively a Russian creation with Theodore Rothstein acting as the eminence grise; the hidden hand of Moscow controlling the British left-wing movement. In 1920 Theodore Rothstein's activities on the left of the British labour movement assisted the formation of a Communist party in Britain affiliated to the Comintern. Theodore was, soon after, effectively debarred from Britain following a visit to Russia, at which point his clandestine political activities passed to his son, Andrew. This book encompasses two periods. The first looks at the contribution of Theodore Rothstein to British Marxism and the response of the British intelligence services, Special Branch and MI5, to what they regarded as a serious threat to British security. The second part probes Andrew Rothstein's subsequent career, and considers four main events: the formation of the Anglo-Russian Committee in 1924, the Zinoviev Letter, the General Strike of 1926 and the ARCOS Raid of 1927, and concluding with Andrew Rothstein joining his father in Moscow in 1930. With access to recently released documents from MI5, this book sheds new light on the activities of British Marxists against the backdrop of the early twentieth century and brings to life the story of a remarkable family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788310642
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/2018
Series:	International Library of Historical Studies
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

David Burke is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Salford and Leeds. He holds a PhD from University of Greenwich.

Table of Contents

List of Plates ix

Acknowledgements xi

List of Abbreviations xii

Introduction 1

1 The Russian Political Emigration 5

2 East End Jewish Marxist 24

3 Socialist Unity, Revolution 1905, the London Congresses of the RSDLP and the Second International's Condemnation of Militarism 41

4 Imperialism and the Struggle of the Working Class 60

5 War and MI7(d): Chicherin, the Zimmerwald Manifesto and Trotsky's Nashe Slovo 73

6 War, the Clyde Workers' Committee and Peter Petrov 92

7 Revolution 111

8 The 'Dual Policy' 131

9 The CPGB and 'Hands Off Russia'; 'Zionism versus Bolshevism'; Enter Zinoviev 155

10 Prising Open the Lion's Jaws 173

11 The Anglo-Russian Committee and the Zinoviev Letter 199

12 The 1926 General Strike and the Anglo-Russian Committee 217

13 The ARCOS Raid and 'Class Against Class' 234

Epilogue 253

Notes 256

Bibliography 300

Index 310

Editorial Reviews

By tracing the political careers of the émigré Theodore Rothstein and his British-born son Andrew, David Burke deftly guides the reader through many of the most important crises and controversies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In doing so, Russia and the British Left poses crucial questions about the dynamic relationship between the British and Russian lefts in an era of uncertainty, war, and revolution.
Thomas Jones, Lecturer in History, University of Buckingham, UK

From the Publisher