One century ago this week the Russian Revolution – an attempt to create a more just nation – sealed the fate of the Romanov dynasty, formed the Soviet Union and led to more than 70 years of communist rule.
Today, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin’s embalmed body lies in a Moscow mausoleum.
He reveres the Soviet Union, which he served as a Communist party member and KGB officer, but hates the concept of the popular uprising that created it.
Last year Putin ordered Kremlin strategist Sergei Kirienko to tell Russia’s state media companies to play down the occasion and suggested it should be discussed only by experts and historians. However, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation plans a series of events in St Petersburg in November.
*The October 24-25 anniversary of the revolution is officially celebrated on November 7 in Russia because the country switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar following the revolution.