2017 marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution. It is hard to justify another event which has so shaped today's Russia and today's world. It gave birth to the Communist system which at one point ruled one third of humanity, provoked the rise of Naziism and the Second World War, and stood as global opponent to the West through the 40 year Cold War. In Tony Brenton's recently published book "Historically Inevitable? Turning points of the Russian Revolution" a group of distinguished historians identify key moments in the revolution, and reflect on how things might have gone differently. In this talk Sir Anthony will assess what was, and was not, genuinely "inevitable" about the revolution, and will explore the parallels between 1917 and the 1991 collapse which gave us the Russia of today.

Sir Anthony Brenton, who last addressed us in 2010, was a British diplomat for over 30 years. He served in the Arab world, the European Union, Washington DC (through the 9/11 crisis and its aftermath) and twice in Moscow, the second time, from 2008 to 2012, as British Ambassador. In the Foreign Office he held responsibility for a number of key international issues including the United Nations, Human Rights, Global Climate Change and the International Criminal Court. He has written an earlier book "The Greening of Machiavelli" on international environmental politics; he is an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College Cambridge and a regular commentator on Russia and other international topics. We hope to have either hardback or paperback copies of "Historically Inevitable? Turning points of the Russian Revolution" on sale at the meeting - at a special reduced price to members.

This is a GB Russia event and tickets are only available from the GB Russia Society website at: www.gbrussia.org