The first socialist state in history lasted only seventy years. This is a very small period of time in the scope of world history. Its achievements have been pilloried – its demise being the greatest argument against its achievements. But merely because it disappeared does not mean that it was without merit. It provides us with the assurance that a workers and peasants’ state can exist, that it can create policies to benefit the vast masses of the people rather than merely the rich, that it can heal and educate rather than merely starve and kill. Red October is an invitation to rediscover the importance of the Russian Revolution, to explore how it faltered and to nudge us to consider the ghosts of that revolution in our own movements today. Amar Farooqui is Professor of History at the University of Delhi. B. T. Ranadive (1904-1990) was a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the General Secretary of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions. Irfan Habib is Professor Emeritus at the Department of History at Aligarh Muslim University and the author of many essential books on Indian history and Marxism, including his monumental People’s History of India series. Jodie Dean is a Professor of Political Science at Hobart & William Smith College. She is the author of The Communist Horizon (2012) and Crowds and Party (2016). Prabhat Patnaik held the Sukhamoy Charvarty Chair at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and was vice chairman of the Planning Board of Kerala. He is the author of a number of important books on Marxist theory and is the editor of Social Scientist. Prabir Purkayastha is the editor of Newsclick. Prakash Karat is a former General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Shahrzad Mojab is a Professor at the University of Toronto. Her essay draws from her introduction to Marxism and Feminism, a 2015 book that she edited. Sitaram Yechury is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and a member of the Rajya Sabha. Vijay Prashad is the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books.