Giles Udy
Historian,
Author & Speaker
ABOUT
Giles Udy is a historian whose work covers Soviet history, the Gulag, and the influence of Soviet Communism and Marxism in British politics from 1917 to 1956 and in the present day.
Giles has spent the last twenty years studying Soviet Communism, particularly its repression of its citizens and its sponsorship of revolution and subversion abroad. In pursuit of that research he has travelled thousands of miles across Russia, visiting some of the most isolated parts of the country.
He has also written on the influence of Marxism in the British Labour movement both in the 20th Century and today. His acclaimed book, Labour and the Gulag - Russia and the Seduction of the British Left, touches on both of these subjects and is now reprinted in paperback. Some of his articles on the modern Left are to be found here.
Giles has more recently published on revisionist interpretations of 18th and 19th Century history and critical race theory. He is currently working on a new book on the political ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky and the corrosive impact their adoption would have upon Western society.
Giles is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Trustee of the Museum of Communist Terror, and holds an MBA from the City University Business School in London. He has written for The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Inews, Standpoint, The Critic, and Unherd.
Ruined settlement, Norilsk Gulag, Norilsk, N. Siberia,
300 miles N. of the Arctic Circle.
SPEAKING
Giles Udy has appeared on BBC TV in Politics Today, Newsnight and The Big Questions, as well as at Westminster and elsewhere speaking on subjects as varied as the Berlin Wall, Left wing politics, Russian assassinations abroad, Russian propaganda, Marxism, and the Gulag.
He is available to speak to societies, groups, or schools - for schools, either giving a single talk or as historian in residence for a full day. (Some testimonials are here)
Please email for more details.
MEDIA
The Truth about Communism, Gulags and the Left with Giles Udy
One of our most moving episodes ever with historian Giles Udy. We discuss: communism, the gulags & why is it still cool to wear a t shirt of Che Guevara? There may be a few tears shed in this one....
Corbyn, Labour and the Communists
- So What You're Saying Is
Peter Whittle sits down with author and historian Giles Udy to discuss the themes explored in his book "Labour And The Gulag: Russia and the Seduction of the British Left".
How Alexander Solzhenitsyn's book, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", came to be published
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" caused a sensation when it was published in the Soviet Union. But how did a book which exposed the brutal nature of the Gulag get to be published at all? It was such dynamite that it had to be approved by the top man himself: the First Secretary of the Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev. But first, it had to reach him.
Giles Udy tells the story of how the book came to be published and the reaction it caused.
Britain's Silent Cultural Revolution
In the year of Black Lives Matter protests following the death of the American George Floyd, we have seen Britain in the grip of a revolutionary and iconoclastic fervour. Statues have been toppled and defaced, historic buildings and streets renamed, priceless historic collections "decolonized" and the legacy of great figures debased & sullied. How worried should we be?
Heresies, Episode 4: "Britain's Silent Cultural Revolution", is presented by Emma Webb, and features interviews with: Charles Moore, Giles Udy
and Nigel Biggar
Black History Month and the slave trade - Giles Udy on GB News
The other side of Britain's involvement in the slave trade. How revulsion at the nation's past spurred a moral awakening which in turn led the country to become the world's leading anti-slavery power.
The clip that went viral on TikTok with 3.3 million views.
Were Grenfell deaths a 'social murder'?
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire were "murdered by political decisions", and later described it as "social murder". Historian Giles Udy looked at the historical context of the social murder phrase, before Daily Politics presenter Jo Coburn heard reaction from Labour MP Jess Phillips and Conservative MP Robert Halfon. (Politics Today, 17 July 2017)
Giles
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©2021 by Giles Udy