American press as witness

The October Revolution of 1917 was the opening salvo in the history of world revolution; while it left profound marks on a global scale, it also resonated vividly in the American press. In particular, the American socialist press gave powerful voice to the revolution’s impact and the transformation it engendered, employing its own distinctive language. In contrast to the general silence of the bourgeois media, newspapers aligned with socialism made a concerted effort to break this information embargo.

On 12 April 2017, the In Defence of Marxism website published a chronologically arranged selection entitled The October Revolution in the American Press, consisting of articles from the American press covering the Russian Revolution in 1917 and 1918. This compilation stands as a valuable resource, as it presents the events of the period, the enthusiasm of the revolution, and the first signs of counter-revolutionary attacks to the reader in their original form.

This collection brings together articles from dissident publications of the period – most notably the American socialist newspaper The New York Call – spanning the period from October 1917 to November 1918. It offers valuable insights into the revolution’s impact on American communism, the gradual rise of anti-communist propaganda, and the developments leading up to the era of the "witch hunts". In particular, writings by key figures of the time, such as Eugene Debs and John Reed, reveal not only the ideological debates of the day but also the revolution’s reflections in the American press and its powerful impact on the public.

We encourage all readers with a command of English to explore this selection prepared by In Defence of Marxism, as these texts constitute a unique resource for anyone seeking to gain a close understanding of the spirit of the age. Let us hope that this compilation will be made available in Turkish before too long.

The sole point we wish to highlight here, however, concerns the frequency with which Lenin and Trotsky – the two principal leaders of the revolution – were mentioned in the American press, specifically in the context of our series launched in May 2025, around the theme of “who were the true leaders of the October Revolution?” [*]

In this selection drawn from the American press, Lenin’s name appears exactly 44 times, while Trotsky’s is mentioned 13 times. The pair are referred to together – as “Lenin and Trotsky” or “Trotsky and Lenin” – on no fewer than nine occasions. This clearly shows that, within the American socialist circles of the time, Lenin and Trotsky were indeed recognised as the joint leaders of the Russian Revolution.

So, is Stalin’s name mentioned at all in these articles published between October 1917 and November 1918? No, it is not. Not once is Stalin referred to in these texts. The only exception to this silence appears in one of the explanatory notes appended to the selection by In Defence of Marxism, which cites George E. Rennan’s Russia and the West: Under Lenin and Stalin. But within the original articles themselves, not even the faintest mention of Stalin can be found.

Such, then, is the testimony of the American press – and of American socialists like Eugene Debs and John Reed, who closely followed the revolution – concerning the leadership of the October Revolution!

[*] Rosa Luxemburg as witness, John Reed as witness, Louise Bryant as witness, Joseph Stalin as witness – and Molotov confirms Stalin’s testimony. To be honest, when I wrote the article titled Rosa Luxemburg as a witness, I had no intention of creating such a series. Each piece, in its turn, inspired the next.