From 1905 to 2025
A Reflection on the Rise and Fall of Left-Wing Movements in the World

A Look at the Unsuccessful Russian Uprising of 1905,
the Historical Trajectory of Left-Wing Movements over the Past Century,
and the Rise of New Right-Wing Movements in the Twenty-First Century

Aydin Areta

YouTube:
https://youtu.be/k4fMu9r6U34
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The year 1905 was, in many respects, a year that shaped our contemporary world.

The period from 1903 to 1905 was among the most important in modern history. During these years a series of consequential events took place that contributed to the rise of left-wing movements around the world.

During this period, Russian despotism reached the beginning of its collapse, and the discourse of overthrow became the dominant idea within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. At the same time, the Labour Party was founded in England and women’s suffrage movements expanded there, ultimately achieving victory a few years after the Russian Revolution of 1917. In France, the government of Émile Combes made the separation of religion and state a foundational principle of politics. In the United States, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was formed, and the Mexican Revolution began under the influence of left-wing ideas.

In these same years, the first girls’ schools were established in Iran and Mozaffar al-Din Shah signed the Constitutional Decree. In Russia, the Duma was established, and the Young Turk movement emerged in Turkey.

Yet 1905 was transformative not only in politics. It was also an extraordinary period in science and technology. In that year Einstein published the theory of relativity, Freud presented his most important work on sexuality, and a technological revolution began through inventions such as radio and the first flight of the Wright brothers.

If we want to compare this period with the present, the technological movement of that era—radio, the automobile and the aeroplane—can be compared with the revolution artificial intelligence is creating in the world today. In both periods class inequality, economic pressure and inflation rose rapidly. What was industrialisation then appears today in the form of technofeudalism and the domination of multinational corporations.

In this thirty-minute talk, centred on an analysis of the American philosopher Marshall Berman’s book *All That Is Solid Melts into Air*, I examine the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the conditions surrounding it. I then analyse the reasons for the decline of left-wing movements in the contemporary world and, finally, examine new right-wing movements, the future of these transformations, and their effects upon the historical consciousness of contemporary human beings and the process of individuation.