SOCIALISTS are gathering at London’s historic Marx Memorial Library (MML) in Clerkenwell Green tonight to launch a year of activities commemorating the centenary of the Russian revolution.

Events across Britain over the next 12 months will include meetings, lectures, film showings, plays and art exhibitions, culminating in a conference at the TUC’s Congress Hall on November 4 2017, almost 100 years to the day since armed workers led by Lenin’s Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace.

The conference will look at the revolution’s historical significance, particularly its influence on Britain’s labour movement and on its legacy today.

“The Russian revolution accomplished the first successful overthrow of a capitalist state,” said historian and MML trustee Professor Mary Davis, who will chair tonight’s event.

“In this sense it was, for us, even more significant than the English revolution of 1640 or the French revolution of 1789, both of which established capitalist states. In 1917, for the first time in history, working people established their own state — a socialist state.”

The meeting will be addressed by Cuban ambassador Teresita de Jesus Vicente Sotolongo and the evening will start with a short film about the centenary.

Today’s launch is organised by the Russian Revolution Centenary Committee, supported by the Marx Memorial Library, Morning Star, Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies, Communist Party, London Socialist Film Co-op and South East Region TUC among others.