[Biweekly Symposium] No. 580: Two Key Elements in the October Revolution: Land and Army. 

Lecturer: JIN Yan

Host: Guping

Commentators: MA Licheng, XIANG Zuotao, LEI Yi, CHEN Haowu

Professor JIN Yan is an expert in Soviet Union. She was upset that since the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution was looming, edicts have been issued to regulate what could and could not be talked about. She emphasized that today’s lecture was on the October Revolution, but only focusing on two issues, the land and the army. When Russia sought for expansion outward, the small commercial base could not support its ambition. Therefore, land was used to finance wars. However, the serfdom system was not compatible for this war financing method: labourers were promised land if they chose to fight for the tsar, but this went against the established system. In the end, massive land was deserted because of the dislocated nobilities and previous land owners, and new owners died in the battlefield. She also explained the development of different social and political forces before and during the Revolution. 

Unirule Biweekly Symposium has been serving the Chinese public as an open platform for academic exchange.