1917 - Dissent Magazine

The Forgotten Democratic Socialist Republic of Georgia

Dan Gallin ▪ January 24, 2018

In Georgia, unlike in neighboring Russia, the revolutionary wave of 1917–18 yielded an experiment in full-fledged democratic socialism.

The Rise of the Security State: From the Great War to Snowden

Michael Kazin ▪ Fall 2017

The American surveillance state was launched 100 years ago during the First World War, primarily to spy on and indict U.S. citizens who protested the war and the draft.

What Lenin’s Critics Got Right

Mitchell Cohen ▪ Fall 2017

No regime identifying with Bolshevism has led to anything that can be called “liberation,” as early left-wing critics like Julius Martov and Rosa Luxemburg foresaw.

October’s Long Shadow

Keith Gessen ▪ Fall 2017

In Russia, the legacy of the October Revolution is the most forgotten, the most ignored, and the most paradoxical of all.

Neither Master Nor Subject: Zionism, Empire, and the Balfour Declaration

Susie Linfield ▪ Fall 2017

It was just a three-sentence letter, written 100 years ago—and many claim it’s still shaping the Middle East. But we should be careful about what we read into the Balfour Declaration.