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Bob Henderson

@roberthenderson.bsky.social
882 followers 450 following 79 posts

Historian of the Russian revolutionary emigration. Formerly Russian curator at the British Library. Based in East Neuk & Edinburgh, Scotland. Latest book: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/spark-that-li…

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Reposted by Bob Henderson
Chasbell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🇮🇹🇨🇦 @chasbell.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
He has basically copied his new policies from Scotland and made them look like his own the mans just another fraud, instead of being honest and saying these are good policies in use in Scotland and we should adopt them in England, they can’t have Scotland looking more progressive than England.
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Project Gutenberg @gutenberg.org · 23/09/2026
The two Scottish female novelists who outsold and inspired Jane Austen by Cleo O'Callaghan Yeoman theconversation.com/the-two-scot... Books by Susan Ferrier and Mary Brunton at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho... www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho... #books #literature
Scottish novelist Susan Ferrier; from an engraving after the 1836 portrait by R. Thorburn.

Portrait of Ferrier shown wearing an elaborate lace-trimmed bonnet and a dark dress with embroidered collar, holding what appears to be a locket or watch on a chain.Portrait of Mary Brunton (1778-1818) from the 2nd edition (1820) of Emmeline.

She's shown with curled hair, a pearl necklace, and puffed-sleeve dress.
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Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Moments on Moscow streets 101 years ago Henry Sara's photos capture the Soviet Union in a period of uncertainty, 8 years after the revolution and a year after Lenin's death These images and more are online at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...
Moscow street scene taken in 1925. The driver of a horse-drawn cab or cart is caught staring back at the camera.Photograph of children on a street corner in Moscow, taken in 1925. One is wearing a Red Army hat and lighting a cigarette.
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“Rebellious Scots” 😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @markrich68.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
🇬🇧 The uk government squandered £37,000 MILLION, and as a result handed Scotland an additional notional debt of £4,500 MILLION That’s the ‘benefit’ of westminster Rule 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Are you YES yet ? 🇪🇺
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 16/09/2026
CFP: Hogg’s Worlds Now 2–4 July 2027 @glasgow.ac.uk Paper proposals are invited that engage with any aspect of James Hogg’s life & writing, & with the broader community of authors associated with Scottish #Romanticism. Abstracts due by 31 Dec. studiesinhoggandhisworld.blogspot.com/2026/05/fort...
studiesinhoggandhisworld.blogspot.com
Forthcoming James Hogg Conference
Hogg’s Worlds Now The James Hogg Society is delighted to announce that we will be holding a conference at the University of Glasgow on July ...
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 15/09/2026
#OtD 15 Sep 1888 the first ever Yom Kippur ball was held in London, UK, organised by Jewish anarchists in the Arbayter Fraynd (Worker's Friend) group. An explicitly anti-religious gathering, it was well attended and noted as a success despite arrests stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8737...
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Konstantin Tarasov @ktarasov.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Another sad loss for the field. Colleagues report that Jonathan Smele has passed away. He was the longtime editor of Revolutionary Russia and author of The 'Russian' Civil Wars, 1916–1926, along with several other works. I used a lot his bibliography of the Russian Revolution.
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“Rebellious Scots” 😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @markrich68.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
🇬🇧 ‘THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK’ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Still the best Vlog you’ll ever see !🤣 12yrs ago this week, 100 british LABOUR MPs took a train all the way from London, to tell the people of Scotland to vote NO to independence, so that Scotland could stay in the EU🇪🇺 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Are you YES yet ?🇪🇺 youtu.be/DiMXuEmqAHA?...
youtu.be
Empire strikes back
YouTube video by Empire Biscuits
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International Institute of Social History @iisg-amsterdam.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Anarchism at the IISG! In September, we are organising two events focusing on this ideology. Want to know more? Have a look at our website iisg.amsterdam/en/events
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Bob Henderson @roberthenderson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
@steelyseabirder.bsky.social Goodness, I've never seen that before!
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Konstantin Tarasov @ktarasov.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Fellow Russianists! Many have recently noticed that the НЭБ portal with digitised documents in no longer accessible. One option is to install a free VPN with a Russian IP (if you're not already using one). Or use the link to the new portal new-portal.rusneb.ru You are welcome!
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“Rebellious Scots” 😎🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇪🇺 @markrich68.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
🇬🇧 Burnham has just tied himself in knots over Indyref2, committing to same conditions as NI GFA rules, and to accepting an Indyref where there is majority support for YES “I am not aware that there is a majority of public support for another referendum, and until that changes there won't be one”
thenational.scot
Indyref2 conditions 'exactly same as Irish unity referendum', Prime Minister says
THE rules governing when a second Scottish independence referendum can be held should be “exactly the same” as those for an Irish reunification…
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Project Gutenberg @gutenberg.org · 08/09/2026
Can statistics help crack the mysterious Voynich manuscript? By Greg Miller (from the archives) knowablemagazine.org/content/arti... More about Voynich manuscript: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich... #books #paleography
Wilfrid Voynich, shown here in a photograph taken around 1899, was never completely forthcoming about how he acquired the mysterious manuscript that bears his name.

Voynich is showing seated at a cluttered desk in his bookshop, writing beside a large open manuscript. Papers, letters, an inkwell, and bound volumes cover the desk; glass-fronted bookcases and a carved fireplace fill the background.
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Daniel Moser @dmoser.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
Map showing Lower Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.
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Flitcraft @flitcraft.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
A reminder to those in Scotland that you can get a National Library of Scotland online membership to access JSTOR without this limitation - and lots of other online resources.
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Bob Henderson @roberthenderson.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Ashamed to say that yet again I can't find a source: this time for this image of a work by Leonid Pasternak. Can anyone help? It's from a book I came across in the British Library about 10 years ago if that's any help.
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Bob Henderson @roberthenderson.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Alex Ferguson. What a guy! 37 goals in his time at Falkirk. I saw many of them as a young 'bairn'.
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The English Historical Review @enghistrev.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Evan Mawdsley reviews 'For Russia with Hitler: White Russian Émigrés and the German-Soviet War', by Oleg Beyda academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-... @uoftpress.bsky.social
academic.oup.com
For Russia with Hitler: White Russian Émigrés and the German-Soviet War, by Oleg Beyda
‘Be it with the devil himself, but against the Bolsheviks.’ This well-known slogan was coined by General Petr Vrangel in 1920, and it sums up the orientati
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 24/08/2026
John Maclean (1879–1923), socialist & Red Clydesider, was born #OTD, 24 August Listen to Hamish Henderson’s “The John Maclean March”, sung by Dick Gaughan (1972) ✊ www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uAs...
youtube.com
Dick Gaughan - John MacLean March
YouTube video by cobrolchain2
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The Russian Review @russianreview.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
*From the Living Syllabus Collection* “Emigres and Global Russian Identities” written by Adam Rodger (a former editorial assistant!) russianreview.ku.edu/emigres This guide includes articles written by Russian emigres that can be used in course syllabi and include suggestions for further reading.
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Susan Reed @susanreed.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Lovely blog post from my colleague Katya about books of fairy tales made for children in post-WW2 Displaced Persons' camps www.bl.uk/stories/blog...
bl.uk
Fairy tales for Ukrainian and Belarusian children
The British Library holds many self-published books for children who were in Displaced Persons’ camps after the Second World War.
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The Russian Review @russianreview.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
*From the Living Syllabus Collection* “A Look into the Archives” written by Olivia Naum russianreview.ku.edu/archives This is an overview of archival access for scholars of Russia and the Soviet Union throughout the years and is for anyone who wants to show the importance of archival access!
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 14/08/2026
#OtD 14 Aug 1889 the great London dock strike began. In two weeks 130,000 were out and after four weeks the employers caved and agreed to nearly all the workers' demands. The dispute marked a turning point in British working-class history stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8541...
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 09/08/2026
#OtD 9 Aug 1914 5000 people gathered on Glasgow Green, Scotland to denounce the declaration of WWI as "the outcome of capitalism." Unlike a similar rally in Edinburgh the day before, no jingoistic mob attacked. The war would claim over 16 million lives stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1087...
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Marzia Maccaferri @marzmac.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
A plate of overcooked pasta did not defeat fascism, but it announced, publicly and collectively, that fascism could be defeated. Thanks to the Istituto Cervi in Reggio Emilia for keeping this tradition alive. jacobin.com/2026/07/past...
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Kate Byrne @katebyrne.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
What to expect
Greyfriars Bobby statue in Edinburgh, dressed in Argentina football kit with an Argentinian flag & cone on his head
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Anna Lively @annalively.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
📢 Book news!! My new book, Revolutionary Connections: Russia and Ireland, 1905-1923, with Oxford University Press is now out online & open access ahead of print! doi.org/10.1093/9780... This image comes from the final chapter on Bolshevik and early Soviet attitudes to Ireland @leverhulme.ac.uk
Illustration from Novoe vremia, 8 July 1916, 4.
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The English Historical Review @enghistrev.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Alex Middleton reviews 'The Paris Commune in Britain: Radicals, Refugees, and Revolutionaries after 1871', by Laura C. Forster @lauracforster.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-... @academic.oup.com
academic.oup.com
The Paris Commune in Britain: Radicals, Refugees, and Revolutionaries after 1871, by Laura C. Forster
This is an innovative and richly suggestive study of British political culture in international context. Rather than concentrating on Britain’s more heated
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Bob Henderson @roberthenderson.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Beautiful Lower Largo. I'll second that!
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International Institute of Social History @iisg-amsterdam.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Next week, archival objects will take center stage during the exhibition Objects that Remember and the storytelling workshop that extends the exhibition’s questions into a participatory setting What We Carry: Portable Homeland and Resistance in Exile. More information: iisg.amsterdam/en/events
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TheBionicBee 🐝 @suewho82.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
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Bob Henderson @roberthenderson.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
I wonder - can anyone offer assistance? Trying to fill in the gaps in this photo of some members of the London Russian émigré community (taken 1895 or earlier). Ashamed to say I didn't keep a note of the source 😱 Grateful for any help!
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Konstantin Tarasov @ktarasov.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Dive into the 20th century music with the "Russian Records" archive russian-records.com/news.php ​Beyond the romances and marches, it’s a fascinating resource of early Soviet propagana. In the pre-radio era, the phonograph became a powerful tool during #RussianCivilWar
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Society for the Study of Labour History @sslh.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
An exciting new hybrid talk from @lauracforster.bsky.social on 9 June, exploring the Communard refugees who arrived in Britain following the defeat of the Paris Commune in May 1871. Find out more: sslh.org.uk/2026/05/29/e...
sslh.org.uk
Event: Exile, affinity, and the afterlives of the Paris Commune in Britain
Dr Laura C. Forster (University of York) will deliver an online and in-person talk on Tuesday 9 June titled: “Exile, affinity, and the afterlives of the Paris Commune in Britain”, covering her rece…
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Raphael Samuel History Centre @rshc.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Would you like to join the Raphael Samuel History Centre mailing list and hear about our forthcoming events? Contact Katy via the website www.bbk.ac.uk/research/cen...
bbk.ac.uk
Raphael Samuel History Centre - Birkbeck, University of London
The Raphael Samuel History Centre is an outreach and research centre supported by a two-way partnership between Birkbeck and Queen Mary.
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 10/05/2026
#OtD 10 May 1920 dock workers in England refused to load armaments for use by Allies against the Russian Revolution. Sylvia Pankhurst played a key role in organising this, as did a woman known only as "Mrs Walker from Poplar" stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8226...
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History: The Journal of the Historical Association @hisjournalha.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
#History #Skystorians Another new article! Adam Coker's ' "Enthusiasts" and "Fanatics": The Decembrists as a Case Study in French Influence on Russian Culture, Emotions, and Thought', OA, doi.org/10.1111/1468...
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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · 28/04/2026
'[E]fforts to grapple with Goldman’s politics co-exist with evocations that are less political, celebrating the lifelong anarchist as an impressively outspoken woman above all else.' Clara Vlessing examines the cultural afterlives of Emma Goldman and Louise Michel.
historyworkshop.org.uk
Anarchist Afterlives
What should we make of the cultural legacies of revolutionary women? Clara Vlessing considers the lives and afterlives of anarchists Emma Goldman and Louise Michel.
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Bob Henderson @roberthenderson.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Thanks for this. (Ashamed to admit I'd never heard of it😳) share.google/iGEzyl9c5xw2...
share.google
Google Image Result for https://www.film.ru/sites/default/files/styles/thumb_260x400/public/movies/posters/27482627-1226391.jpg
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Konstantin Tarasov @ktarasov.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
NEW BOOK At 91, the legendary Alexander Rabinowitch returns with a new study on the Bolsheviks in 1919. ​A stunning testament to endless intellectual longevity. @upittpress.bsky.social upittpress.org/books/978082...
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Project Gutenberg @gutenberg.org · 26/04/2026
Groundbreaking Novel Ranked Among ‘Best Books of All Time’ Turns 307 Years Old parade.com/news/groundb... Robinson Crusoe at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70841 #books #literature
“For a mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well—”

From: Robinson Crusoe

Author: Daniel Defoe

Illustrator: N. C. Wyeth

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70841/pg70841-images.html

A colour illustration of a bearded, bare-chested man standing on a makeshift raft at sea, shielding his eyes to scan the horizon, surrounded by salvaged trunks, a barrel, and supplies, with seabirds and billowing orange and white clouds above.
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History of Communism @historyofcommunism.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
#OpenAccess #archive Thousands of digitised photos from the GDR era in Leipzig. recherche-stadtarchiv.leipzig.de/actaproweb/s... #Photography #DDR #EastGermany #Leipzig #online #freeaccess #DDR #pictures
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History of Communism @historyofcommunism.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
#OpenAccess Nice collection of French communist digitised brochures. pandor.u-bourgogne.fr/fr/archives-...
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Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Scenes of a revolution These tinted slides show Russia at a time of revolutions and civil war Produced in the USA by the Victor Animatograph Company, they were used for Henry Sara's UK lantern lecture tours See more Sara slides at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib... #Archive30 #ColourfulArchives
Colourised lantern slide showing a woman dressed in 'peasant' clothing, including headscarf, holding a bowl which contains a small amount of food. Her face is lined with age and she looks gaunt.Colourised lantern slide showing a Russian street scene. A man in a fur hat is sitting on the pavement. The lower part of his legs have been amputated and he is using a four wheeled trolley to move. The crowd also includes soldiers, children and a well-dressed woman who is looking down on the amputee.Colourised lantern slide showing bundles of pro-Bolshevik leaflets or other publications being unloaded from a decorated propaganda train.Colourised lantern slide showing the vast head of a statue of Alexander III, upside down and removed from the rest of the Moscow statue. Two men are adjusting the ropes that have been used to lower it.
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William Duguid @williamduguid1.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
'We have all seen what they did to Gaza. The notion they cannot do this to Iran is simply wrong. It requires a colossal effort of will, a mania for killing, a vast amount of money and the depletion of the US arsenal. But they can do it.' @craigmurrayorg.bsky.social
craigmurray.org.uk
Joy at Death and Destruction
The United States and Israel are both revelling in inflicting the maximum possible death and suffering on Iran. After the genocide in Gaza, on a far larger field in Iran, those in power in Israel and
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Konstantin Tarasov @ktarasov.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
The archive of the Smolensk Communist Party Committee for 1917–1941 is now fully digitised and online. The unique documents were taken by the Germans during WWII and eventually ended up in the US. Now anyone can access them. catalog.archives.gov/id/12004746
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Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 04/03/2026
There’s more on Robert Burns, Graffiti Artist here #C18 #poetry #graffiti burnsmuseum.wordpress.com/2018/08/24/g...
burnsmuseum.wordpress.com
Graffiti Artist?
Have you ever had the urge to graffiti? To loudly declare to the world I was here? Well Robert Burns certainly did, and he chose a way with great style and panache too. His was no illegible scrawls…
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 03/03/2026
#OtD 3 Mar 1903 the Immigration Act of 1903 (aka: Anarchist Exclusion Act) was signed into US law by President Theodore Roosevelt. It barred entry to the US for anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of sex workers stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1020...
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UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies @uclssees.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Join us on Wednesday for this Culture and Society in Modern Russia seminar with Andrei Rogatchevski, who will discuss popular music and popular opinion at wartime. This talk will be delivered in Russian. 🗓️ 4 March at 4pm 📍 UCL SSEES www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
ucl.ac.uk
Popular Music and Popular Opinion at Wartime
A SSEES Culture and Society in Modern Russia seminar with Andrei Rogatchevski. This event will be delivered in Russian.
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