He raised the workers' flag and the republic's on a single staff
Too wounded to stand, he was shot tied to a chair — Kilmainham Gaol, 12 May 1916
A socialist revolutionary who fused Marxism with Irish national liberation. He founded the Irish Citizen Army, commanded the Dublin Brigade in the 1916 Easter Rising, and was executed by the British after its suppression.
Career timeline
1896Founds the Irish Socialist Republican Party
1903–1910IWW organizer in America
1910–1914Leads the ITGWU through the 1913 Dublin Lockout
1910Published Labour in Irish History
1913Founds the Irish Citizen Army
1915Published The Re-Conquest of Ireland
1916.4Easter Rising — Dublin commandant, signatory of the Proclamation
A British diplomat whose judgments narrowed as the Moscow negotiations closed in
Seeds judged Molotov to possess “rather foolish cunning of the type of the peasant.”
William Seeds was a British diplomat who served in missions across Europe and the Americas before becoming ambassador in Moscow in 1939. He represented Britain in the negotiations for a British-French-Soviet mutual-assistance treaty, as Western hesitation collided with Soviet demands for binding security guarantees. His dismissive reports on Vyacheslav Molotov after Maxim Litvinov's removal reveal both a contemporary observer's insight and the limits of British diplomacy as the talks failed.
Career timeline
1904–1907British diplomatic mission, Washington
1908–1910British Legation, Peking
1913–1919Chargé d'affaires and consul general, Lisbon
1928–1930British High Commissioner for the Rhineland
1930–1935British ambassador to Brazil
1939–1940British ambassador to the Soviet Union, leading the Moscow triple-alliance negotiations
Martin McCauley is an Irish-born historian of Soviet and East European politics. A former senior lecturer at UCL's School of Slavonic and East European Studies, he wrote widely on Stalinism, the Khrushchev era, the Cold War, and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. He interpreted the 20th Party Congress speech both as an effort to restore a functioning Party, freeing officials from fear of repression, and as a move in Khrushchev's struggle to weaken rivals.
Career timeline
1953–1956Studied surveying at the University of Westminster
1961Studied French civilisation at the Sorbonne in Paris
1962–1968Studied at the University of London and earned a PhD
1968–1978Senior lecturer at the University of London's School of Slavonic and East European Studies
1975Edited and published The Russian Revolution and the Soviet State
1976Published Khrushchev and the Development of Soviet Agriculture
1995Published The Khrushchev Era: 1953–1964
2007Published The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union
