Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution of October 1917, when on 25-26 October (Old style) Red Guard forces under the leadership of Bolshevik commanders launched their final attack on the Provisional Government.
At 9:45 p.m, the cruiser Aurora fired a blank shot from the harbor. By 2:00 a.m on 26 October Bolshevik forces entered the Winter Palace.
People began celebrating November 7 in 1918. In the USSR, it was the main holiday, called The Day of the Great October Socialist Revolution. Even on November 7, 1941, October Revolution Parade was held in honor of the October Revolution. The General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin delivered a speech to the soldiers on the parade on Red Square who would go to battle immediately after the parade.
After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed, on March 13, 1995, the Federal Law on Days of Military Glory of Russia. This law proclaimed November 7 the Day of Liberating Moscow from Polish Invaders, a feat accomplished by the People’s Volunteer Corps commanded by Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky. In his executive order of November 7, 1996, President Yeltsin renamed this holiday the Day of Accord and Reconciliation.
Moscow has hosted official events dedicated to the 1941 parade for over a decade. Various episodes of that military parade are reenacted, and theatrical performances presented. Historic military equipment is also displayed.
Scientific Director of the Russian Military-Historical Society, Professor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Mikhail Myagkov, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, said that it is necessary to remember about the October Revolution, first of all, in order to learn from the revolutionary events of a century ago. "It was a great tragedy when a revolution was made because of the desire to realize political and social aspirations. No idea can justify people of one country killing their compatriots. After these events we should learn our mistakes and understand that the best way to develop the country is always the evolutionary path, when traditions, national peculiarities and character of the development of the state are taken into account," he stressed.
At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that it is impossible to deny the enormous achievements of peoples and state in the Soviet period after the revolution. "It can even be said that at a certain stage of the 20th century the Soviet state became the leader of world progress. A huge contribution was made by the revolution in the fact that some colonial peoples felt the need and the possibility of liberation, also following the example of the national policy pursued in the USSR. Many countries, having seen the Soviet social policy, started to reform their own capitalist systems in order to prevent the social explosion that occurred in Russia in 1917. In fact, the revolution served as a foundation for the model of a social state," Mihail Myagkov pointed out.
"In addition, let us not forget that it was the socialist state that won the Second World War. The USSR won this war and made a decisive contribution to the defeat of Hitler's Germany and its allies.Thus, the lessons of the revolution are ambiguous, but at the same time very significant to this day," the scientific Director of the Russian Military-Historical Society concluded.
A senior scientist of the Center of Russian Peoples and History of Inter-ethnic Relations of the Russian History Institute of the RAS, Andrei Marchukov, also noted the duality of the current assessments of the October Revolution. "This event was undoubtedly epoch-making, which affected radically not only the history of Russia, but also the whole of humanity, because it is impossible to imagine the subsequent development of Europe and the world without a revolution in Russia. Therefore, a Great one - is a right name for it. The socialist revolution was called to build communism-socialism, and the Soviet state for a very long time went along the socialist path of development, giving people free health service, free education, free housing," he said.
"In my opinion, the goal of any revolution is destruction, and the entire positive effect of the socialist system was achieved at later stages, largely due to the work of subsequent generations of both the people and the leaders of the state, who moved from destruction to creation," Andrei Marchukov stressed.
