A hundred years ago, in Russia in the middle of WWI, Lenin led the Bolshevik revolution. After the war, as Britain made formal trade agreements with Lenin, some of the liberal left-leaning Bloomsbury Group formed a society, the British Society for Cooperation in Russian and Soviet Studies (SCRSS). They wanted to forge and strengthen cultural links with the USSR, and this society still exists today, dedicated to the same cause. This new exhibition at the North Wall raids their archive of photographs, introducing some rarely-seen gems to the general public.
From these photographs emerges another side of Lenin - in disguise for a fake ID card, relaxing with his cat in his arms at home. Scholars of Lenin's life may be familiar with many of these images, as the SCRSS's archives are open to researchers, but to most of us these offer a new perspective and a contrast to the instantly identifiable historical figure with his beard and worker's cap.
There's a focus too on the effects of the revolution. Babies frolic in salt water baths outdoors, happily regimented in matching sunhats. A Georgian mother practises her writing on a blackboard. Meanwhile, scenes from films about the revolution illustrate the devastating violence that brought about these cultural changes. There's a lot of history packed into these grainy monochrome images, and it's a good reminder that revolutions, like technology, are "neither good, nor bad, nor neutral".
