Journalist and writer Martin Sixsmith introduces a series of essays on the artistic impact of the Russian Revolution and considers the choices, good and bad, it offered to artists. Show more

Writer and historian Helen Rappaport reappraises American journalist John Reed, 100 years to the day since he witnessed the Russian Revolution of October 1917 at first hand. Show more

Former ballerina Deborah Bull looks at the impact of Nijinsky's revolutionary ballet, The Rite of Spring, which in dance terms, pre-empted events in October 1917 by several years. Show more

Director and writer Richard Eyre appraises the Russian Revolution's impact on theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold, at first an enthusiastic Bolshevik, later victim of the regime. Show more

Academic and art historian Christina Lodder describes the work and influence of visionary sculptor Vladimir Tatlin, whose major revolutionary design would never be realised. Show more

Musicologist Tamsin Alexander considers the music of Alexander Mosolov, inspired by the industrial sounds of the Soviet Union, and the only composer to be sent to the Gulag. Show more

Poet and biographer Elaine Feinstein compares the impact of the Russian Revolution on the contrasting lives of the two great poets, Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva. Show more

Political commentator and historian Tariq Ali recalls a tour of Constructivist Moscow in the 1980s that introduced him to the work of revolutionary architect Moisei Ginzburg. Show more

Writer, composer and silent movie accompanist Neil Brand weighs up propaganda versus artistic invention in the re-enactment of the Revolution in Eisenstein's classic film October. Show more

Ceramicist Claire Curneen tells the strange story of the State Porcelain Factory and examines two of its dinner plates that were repurposed after the Revolution of October 1917. Show more