Drafts of the letter of abdication from the last Russian tsar, painted portraits of Russian rulers of the 18th and 19th centuries, photographs of massive street protests in Petrograd and Moscow in 1917, and early-era propaganda posters Soviet – these are just a few of the artifacts on display atRead More →
The hundredth anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia, November 7, is remembered as the starting point in the life of the defunct Soviet state, the origin of receding forms of communism around the world. In the country where the Revolution took place, in Russia, it is minimized, because memoriesRead More →
A group of political radicals took the reins of power in post-tsarist Russia a century ago this week, installing Vladimir Lenin as their first leader and bringing into play some of the forces that made the 20th century the bloodiest in history. history of mankind. It is hard, in fact,Read More →
The short answer is that it was a betrayed revolution. Its emancipatory potential and boundless promises have been ruthlessly crushed by the very party that claimed to speak for the people. Long before the capture of the Winter Palace, the Russian people had made a revolution. After the overthrow ofRead More →
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Vladimir Putin stayed away from events marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution on Tuesday, a world-changing event but one that has awkward associations for the former KGB agent who was trained to contain dissent, not to celebrate it. In Soviet times, missile launchers rumbled across RedRead More →
The Russian Revolution began on November 7, 1917, when the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace and seized power. They declared the foundation of the socialist Soviet republic, led by Vladimir Lenin. News of their victory spread like wildfire, inspiring liberation movements elsewhere, particularly in Africa. National resistance to British colonialRead More →
Rallies draped in red flags in Moscow marked the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution on Tuesday. But despite the protests, past crimes and faded memories have left some Russians ambivalent about the centenary. November 7 is the centenary of the second of two 1917 revolutions, called the Bolshevik Movement,Read More →
November 7, the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, was once the most important holiday on the Soviet calendar – bigger than May 1 and even May 9, Victory Day. The anniversary brought parades, choirs and fireworks. Yet now, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary, there is noRead More →
MOSCOW — Russian communists and left-wing activists from around the world marched through central Moscow on Tuesday to commemorate the centenary of the Russian Revolution, in the pale shadow of major Soviet protests in Red Square. The mood at this year’s celebration was more subdued than at previous ceremonies, despiteRead More →
The end of the Soviet Union in 1991 set history adrift. The collapse of a totalitarian dictatorship that had overthrown an absolute monarchy has forced Russians to face a painful task of choosing what to glorify, what to condemn and what to silence. . The heated debates about the roleRead More →
A century ago, Lenin’s Marxist Bolsheviks took control of Russia’s imperial capital, launching the October Revolution that led to the creation of the Soviet Union. A century ago, Lenin’s Marxist Bolsheviks took control of Russia’s imperial capital, launching the October Revolution that led to the creation of the Soviet Union.Read More →
If any of these events had thwarted Lenin, our times would be radically different. Without Lenin, there would have been no Hitler. Hitler owes much of his rise to the support of conservative elites who fear a Bolshevik revolution on German soil and who believe only he can defeat Marxism.Read More →
Wives of soldiers demand increased rations during a demonstration along Nevsky Prospekt after the observance of International Women’s Day, February 23, 1917. (Photo by K. Bulla. Courtesy of Central Archives of the State of Kino-Photo-Phono documents, St. Petersburg.) The centenary of the Russian revolution November 7, 2017 marks the 100thRead More →
The Bolsheviks had a battery of powerful leaders, but the most notable were Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov – Lenin as he is better known – Joseph Stalin, and for a time Leon Trotsky. Three key Russian revolutionary leaders were Vladimir Lenin (right), Leon Trotsky (center) and Joseph Stalin (left), in thisRead More →
(JTA) — Of all the many charged issues related to the bloody history of the Jews in the former Soviet Union, none is as sensitive today in this part of the world as their role in the 1917 revolution that brought the communists in power. The outsized prevalence of JewsRead More →
MOSCOW (AP) — His party’s power is long gone, its ideas mostly discredited — but the face of Vladimir Lenin remains a fixture in much of the former Soviet Union. The thousands of statues of him spread across the vast region recall the resounding line of devotion of the poetRead More →
This week, on November 7 (according to the Gregorian calendar*), it is 100 years since Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks revolted against the parliamentary government which, eight months earlier, had overthrown the Tsarist regime. Using Marxism/Leninism as their guiding principles, the Bolsheviks created councils composed of workers and peasants, calledRead More →
“The main operations began at 2 a.m.,” wrote Leon Trotsky in his History of the Russian Revolution. “Bolshevik groups occupied the railway stations, the lighting station, the military and food warehouses, the water systems, the Palace bridge, the telephone exchange, the state bank, the main printing works, the telegraph andRead More →
MOSCOW — Police arrested more than 200 people in a Sunday raid that local media linked to an obscure right-wing movement that had called for a repeat of the Russian Revolution, timed as its 100th anniversary approached. The movement, called Artpodgotovka, or Art Preparation, had agitated in online posts forRead More →
MOSCOW — Tuesday marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution, one of the most important political events of the 20th century. Yet President Vladimir Putin’s government barely acknowledges this – apparently because anything to do with “revolution” hits too close to home. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin hadRead More →
A century after the Russian Revolution, the influence of its leader Vladimir Lenin has faded but his image remains on monuments built across the former Soviet Union as part of a personality cult. Lenin was born in 1870 and became one of the most important leaders of the 20th centuryRead More →
‘Freedom in capitalist society still remains much the same as in the ancient Greek republics: freedom for slave owners. – Vladimir Lenin One hundred years ago, the 24 October 1917 (November in today’s calendar), the disgruntled peasants, working class and soldiers of Russia overthrew the centuries-old system of Tsarist rule.Read More →
Should the Russian Revolution be remembered as one of the great turning points in history or should it be “relegated to the dustbin of history” since the new nation it created, the Soviet Union , no longer exists ? This month is the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution (whichRead More →