‘The Soviets would not last two days without the activities of the Cheka, but with the Cheka, the Soviet State was safe’: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Defending the Revolution Before the October Revolution in 1917 that put the Bolsheviks in power …
Launching a New History Note This year marked the 50-year anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in Britain and 26 years since the lifting of the bar on gay men and lesbians working for the British Diplomatic Service. During …
The Prime Minister's Secretariat (the 'Garden Suburb') was formed 100 years ago, to support David Lloyd George in the conduct of the war. But would it still be needed once hostilities came to an end?
‘Faith, hope and parity’ On Saturday, 18 November 1967, sterling was devalued by 14% from $2.80 to $2.40. Although rumours of impending devaluation had been widespread in the press, including in Europe and the United States, the announcement by the …
Learn how the General Register Office, responsible for the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales, coped with the extra demands which resulted from the First World War.
Sunday 15 October marks the centenary of the execution of Madame MacLeod, neé Margaretha Zelle, best known as Mata Hari. A Dutch dancer, in the early twentieth century she was considered one of the most dangerous female spies of the …
To begin this blog, I am going to set the scene and ask a few hypothetical questions. Imagine it is the height of summer, 1917. The Great War has been raging for almost three years, and there is still no …
On 31 August 1907, Britain and Russia signed an agreement in St Petersburg which put in place the final piece of the alliance system which has widely been considered to have been a major contributing factor regarding the outbreak of the First World War.
On 5 December 1916 Herbert Henry Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister who had governed Britain for more than eight years, resigned, and fellow Liberal David Lloyd George subsequently became Prime Minister, with Conservative support. This was a remarkable development, as Dr Matthew Johnson explains.
Researcher in Residence: Progress Report IV My name is Jack Brown and I am the first ‘Researcher in Residence’ at No. 10 Downing Street, based at the Policy Institute at King’s, King’s College London. I have been investigating the ‘Geography of Power’ at …
