Russian servicemen dressed in second world war uniforms mark Revolution Day on 7 November by helping turn it into a historical parade. Photograph: Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS
The Guardian: Tragedy or triumph? Russians agonise over how to mark 1917 revolutions
The February uprising sparked a brief period of democratic rule before the Bolsheviks seized power – and the legacy of 1917 still divides the country.
On a recent evening at Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery, Vladimir Lenin paced back and forth, debating the finer points of Marxist theory, Vladimir Mayakovsky thundered staccato lines of poetry from atop a pedestal, and the monk Grigory Rasputin mused ominously on the future of Russia.
The event, in which hundreds of modern Moscow’s artistic and creative elite dressed as tsarist-era aristocrats, ate black caviar by the spoonful and drank champagne, was the launch party for an ambitious new project designed to bring the events of 1917 to life for modern Russians 100 years later.
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WNU Editor: Modern day Russia has never properly dealt with the legacy of the 1917 revolutions .... lord knows I have tried to put my two cents to have at least a public discussion. At the moment this legacy is confined within families .... every family has a story on what happened in 1917 .... and every family definitely has a story on what happened after .... and none of it is good. And while I do not expect any celebrations of the 1917 revolutions .... there will be an acknowledgement that it is the 100th anniversary .... and a few extra parades and speeches will be the end result. On a bright note .... there is a revisionist history happening right now on what was life before the revolution. The common theme is that life was hard, the Russian population were treated as serfs by an uncaring nobility, famine and secret police ruled the day .... a view of history that was pushed and advocated by the Bolsheviks who took over in 1917 .... and continued by the Soviet state. The truth .... when stripped away from Communist propaganda .... appears to be different. Many Russian historians and academics are discovering a different Russia .... and while it is true that life was hard, that the Tsars secret police were brutal, and that people did sometimes did go hungry .... it is not to the degree that the Communists said it was .... to put it bluntly .... far from it. I know in my own personal case .... when I look at the pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents before the revolution .... I definitely do not see the dark and dismal picture that many like to paint was the situation at the time. And talking to everyone else .... especially the older generation who do remember what their parents and grandparents said life was like during this time .... their version certainly does not reflect what many on the left say life was like during this time. My prediction .... Russia will come to terms to what the past 100 years has done to the country and its people .... but not now. I give it another two or three generations, and what these kids will be taught will be radically different from what Soviet/Russian children have been taught for the past century.
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