January may be out but our #BurnsSupper225 global survey remains open for submissions! Thank you to all who have submitted so far; we’re delighted to have captured 200+ events already spanning 7 continents - but there’s plenty of room for more! Please share widely: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

As the General Strike centenary gets closer, we've been boosting our digitised content! 560 original documents have now been digitised & are free to access, including strike bulletins, radio transcripts, union communications & more... #GeneralStrike100 cdm21047.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

#OtD 29 Jan 2024 6-year-old Hind Rajab and 6 of her relatives were attacked in Gaza by Israeli troops. Rajab survived and called an ambulance, which got permission from Israel to rescue her. Then troops killed the paramedics, and Rajab also died. stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1545...

Coming soon. Place your orders now: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/margaret-... @nansloane.bsky.social

Our local (Lundin Links) postbox-topper knitters have really done us proud for this year's Burns Night!

#OtD 23 Jan 1909 the Tottenham Outrage occurred in London when Latvian Jewish revolutionaries Jacob Lepidus and Paul Helfeld stole £80 from the factory where they worked, causing a chase and police shootout. Lepidus and Helfield died later that day stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7872...

While yesterday marked the 102nd anniversary of the death of V. I. Lenin, today is the same anniversary year of the coming to power of the first Labour government led by J. R. MacDonald. The two met for the first & only time in 1907 in a church in north London but, it seems, no words were exchanged.

Excellent article (from 3 years ago). But can't get my head round the argument (advanced in the article by the Labour chap L. MacDonald) that if you support the idea of the betterment of your own people, that somehow excludes you from supporting the betterment of those in other parts of the world??

#OtD 21 Jan 1876 Olga Taratuta, veteran Jewish Ukrainian metalworker and revolutionary, was born. Arrested and jailed many times under the tsar, she was then arrested repeatedly by the Bolsheviks until executed in 1938 stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9374...

The nineteenth century is so back.

Thanks for this, Keith. Yes, the "3 Johns" was a venue for the 1903 congress but, sadly, I couldn't verify before publication so had to omit.

Springsteen Denounces ICE Deployments and Renee Good’s Killing www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/a...

NEW BOOK Viktor Kondrashin on peasant revolution rosspen.su/index.php?ro... #RussianRevolution

Wonderful! Must share this: I was one of the fortunate few invited to a celebration of his life in July 2006, where all present received a "lucky bag" full of an assortment of stickies & other bits & bobs. What a truly unique individual he was. Sadly missed.

Thank you for these posts. You can never have too much Ivor Cutler!

Superb new book on the 1926 General Strike in this 100th anniversary year @sslh.bsky.social @strikemap.org @redhen90.bsky.social @keithbeard.bsky.social @buiraonline.bsky.social @wcmlibrary.bsky.social @iassc.bsky.social bookmarksbookshop.co.uk/product/revi...

#OtD 13 Jan 1919 there was a mutiny on the British Royal Navy patrol boat Kilbride, which was to be sent to Russia to fight against the revolution. The sailors rebelled and hoisted the red flag stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8473...

#OTD in 1893, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) was founded at a conference in Bradford. Most of the 120 delegates were young, working-class males from the industrial north of England and Scotland, but it represented all working people.

Dear Ann, wherever you are Since you lately learnt to die, You are this unsetting star That shines unchanged in my eye… Born in Kirkwall, Ann Scott-Moncrieff was a friend of the Orkney poet & translator Edwin Muir, who wrote this poem for her when she died. #womenwriters #C20th 7/7

Still time to book for this special in-person event @ihr.bsky.social on 20 January discussing the record and legacy of the first Labour Government of 1924. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

Call for Papers: Power, People, Papers: Policing the Mobility of 'Undesirables' (1870-1923) 9/6/26 Université Paris Cité. Conference on the emergence and operation of modern state borders. Submissions welcome in English and French. Proposals by 9 Feb 2026 to [email protected]

#OtD 5 Jan 1918 John Maclean was appointed Bolshevik Consul to Scotland by Maxim Litvinoff. The UK govt refused to recognise new the Bolshevik government, but Maclean established a consulate anyway at 12 South Portland Street, Glasgow. Learn more: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1051...

Hope those who celebrate it had an enjoyable Christmas. Ours was excellent despite our inability to grasp the intricacies of Sainsbury's on-line home-delivery service.

SOON! A book I'm personally eagerly awaiting. The third part of Alex Rabinowitch's monumental epic about the Petrograd Bolsheviks: "The Bolsheviks Survive", 1919. #RussianRevolution #RussianCivilWar www.amazon.com/Bolsheviks-S...

James Hogg’s most famous work is undoubtedly his PRIVATE MEMOIRS & CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER (1824) – “a trenchant religious & social satire, a bloody Gothic tale, a morality play, a compelling account of madness” #gothic #romanticism 💙📚 2/10 johannapolus.medium.com/the-devil-is...

“Hogg defied categorisation. A prolific poet, songwriter, playwright, novelist, short story writer & parodist, he wrote with equal skill in Scots & English” James Hogg, AKA “the Ettrick Shepherd” (1770–1835, DOB unknown) was baptised #OTD, 9 Dec 🧵 💙📚 1/10 theconversation.com/james-hogg-a...

Glorious!!

"Litvinoff’s novels speak to the long history of Jewish radicalism in Britain, one in which commitment and ambivalence thrived in equal measure." M. Syd Rosen explores in our latest article on History Workshop.

This looks fascinating. A new(ish) and, apparently, very well researched approach to 1917. Thanks for sharing!

What a delightful story. @firthlass.bsky.social

We're very excited to see this new book about W T Stead from Philip March that arrived in the post today! It draws on research including archives and publication about Stead that we hold.

#OTD 1917 the 'October' Revolution took place in Russia Our archives include significant primary sources on the relationship between Britain and Russia in the decade following the 1917 revolutions 650+ documents have been digitised and are freely available online at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

“We do not want an independent Scotland because we dislike the English, but because we want separation from that Union of financial, military and monarchic establishments calling itself Great Britain.” —Alasdair Gray, “Independence: An Argument for Home Rule”, 2014.

#OtD 25 Oct 1882 German anarchist Johann Most was released from Clerkenwell Prison in London after spending a year and a half there doing forced labour for praising the assassination of Tsar Alexander II by Russian revolutionaries stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9781...

New in Transactions: 'Russian History without Russia: Archive Encounters in an Era of Restricted Access', by Jamie Bryson bit.ly/3IUFMr5 What's the experience of an independent early career historian of Russia today? What are the challenges since 2022 of conducting research at distance? 1/2

Herman Melville in his Ancestral Leven 10 Sep, Methil Heritage Centre – free Featuring talks by Alan Riach: “Melville in Scotland: From the Pacific to Glasgow, to Fife & Beyond” – & Jana Laiz: “Inspired by Melville” www.onfife.com/event/herman...

This would be funny if it wasn’t so serious! Why are the police even involved in this madness?

Did a small excursion around Lenin-related spots near @britishmuseum.bsky.social #RussianRevolution telegra.ph/Lenins-Place... maps.app.goo.gl/DK4aM7MEvH7Z...

#OtD 25 Jul 1867 Karl Marx wrote the preface to the first German edition of his masterwork, Capital. A "weapon in the hands of workers" (as Harry Cleaver called it), it remains the most powerful critique of capitalism ever written shop.workingclasshistory.com/en-gb/collec...

#SkyStorians Question for you: Anyone recently/currently researching the British General Strike of 1926? It's not my field, but thinking of organising a small event in May 2026 to mark the centenary. If you'd be interested or know people who would be, then get in touch on here or by email. Thanks!

Remarkable! #libraries

#OtD 10 Jul 1914 27-year-old suffragette Rhoda Fleming leapt on the footboard of the king and queen's limousine in Perth, Scotland, and tried to break its windows stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8199...

James Hogg & Mikhail Bulgakov In the latest @lrb.co.uk podcast, @marinawarner.bsky.social & Adam Thirlwell look at how James Hogg’s JUSTIFIED SINNER & Bulgakov’s THE MASTER & MARGARITA represent fanaticism, & ask why both writers used the fantastical to test reality www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

The British Museum Library was regarded by many, including Lenin, as the best in the world. This was due in no small part to the exhaustive collection of reference works available to readers on open access in its famous Round Reading Room. (1912 plan showing arrangement of books.) #libraryhistory

Many thanks. Brings back fond memories of evenings spent in the Room on duty behind the Readers' Enquiries desk.

I never stop using it

300 Years of Libraries in Scotland 15 July, Edinburgh – free, ticketed How do you like your books? Old or new? Paperback or hardback? Borrowed or bought? Take a trip 300 years into the past to hear how Scotland’s libraries evolved into what we know today. www.ticketsource.co.uk/edinburgh-ce...

Beautiful Lower Largo, on the Firth of Forth shore of Fife, where Daniel Defoe found the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe. More pics and info: www.undiscoveredscot... #Scotland #LowerLargo #Fife #EastNeuk