Below we publish an extract from Albert R Willaims’ Through the Russian Revolution written in 1967. Willaims was an American journalist and labour organiser who is most famous for writing memoirs about the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, an event in which he was both a witness and a participant.WHILE Petrograd is in a tumult of clashing patrols and contending voices, men from all over Russia come pouring into the city.

TRIPURA chief minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Manik Sarkar was invited by Hampi Kannada University - the top-ranking university of Karnataka to deliver a lecture on “Political Economy of Tripura” on January 16. Addressing the faculty and students of the university, Manik Sarkar described the condition of Tripura before Left Front came to power and highlighted its achievements of second highest literacy rate, lowest difference in male-female literacy and zero farmer suicides.

BSNL Employees Union, the main recognised union of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, conducted its eighth all India conference at Chennai, from December 31, 2016 to January 3, 2017. 1,632 delegates and observers attended this conference. BSNL is one of the biggest public sector companies employing 2.25 lakh workers and officers.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on January 19, 2017.THE CPI(M) strongly opposes the clearance given by the union cabinet for disinvestment of shares in the five public sector general insurance companies. The decision is to disinvest by 25 percent shares in each of these companies.By this step, the government is weakening the nationalised general insurance companies which have been running well.

THE National Human Rights Commission is to be congratulated for taking the first step, even though much delayed, to bring justice to tribal women in the Bastar region of Chattisgarh. Its interim report confirms, through its independent investigation carried out in March 2016, the horrific gang-rapes, rapes, sexual assault and separately, physical assault, by security forces on 16 tribal women in different incidents in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. The incidents occurred between October 19 and 24, 2015, in the villages of Pegdapalli, Chinnagelur, Peddagelur, Gundam and Burgicheru.