MGIMO at Valdai Club Session on Centenary of Russian Revolution

MGIMO at Valdai Club Session on Centenary of Russian Revolution

17 October 2017

October 17th, in the framework of the XIV annual meeting of the International Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, a special session was dedicated to the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. The meeting was moderated by MGIMO Rector, Anatoly Torkunov.

The Russian Revolution had a great influence on world politics, because of its scale and its consequences. It was a national manifestation of trends, which were rapidly developing in most countries of the world. The Russian Revolution set the tone for the entire 20th century and we still live today with the results of that cataclysm: our perceptions of social structure, economic organization and geopolitics are all affected by that key event. Indeed the Russian Revolution is part of the historical phenomenon of the collapse of empires, which is still underway, especially in the consciousness of former colonies.

During the session, presentations were made by the Cambridge Professor and Fellow of the British Academy Dominique Lieven, the Head of Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy of Russia at MGIMO University Boris Martynov and other faculty members. One of the main topics of the discussion was whether revolution and continuity are concepts that mutually exclude each other or whether they are compatible.

— See the MGIMO web-site for russian version