100 Years of Communism

[C-Mag]

Tomorrow is the 100th Anniversary of the rise of Communism in Russia, the Bolshevik Revolution, Bolshevik Coup, or Red October.

How will the anniversary be commemorated ? How do we deal with the start of a political system that would kill 100 Million people in a century.

[TheReal_ND]

[Fife]

[C-Mag]

The Red Youth visited a Stalin Memorial, and honored Koba.

Catholics used the event to highlight the evil of communism
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/2017 ... evolution/

[Ex-California]

I really wish the Germans would have been able to capitalize on this more. It could have prevented WWII?

[heydaralon]

Communism is not so bad when its a subreddit. It is more efficient with upvotes than a capitalist one.

[BjornP]

Tomorrow is the 100th Anniversary of the rise of Communism in Russia, the Bolshevik Revolution, Bolshevik Coup, or Red October.

How will the anniversary be commemorated ? How do we deal with the start of a political system that would kill 100 Million people in a century.

http://www.newsweek.com/putin-decrees-r ... ion-534345

Don't expect it to be commerated as the centenary of Communism, though. It was a major, transformative event in Russian history and it's not as if the Tsarist days hold a positive place in most Russians' heart. I suspect the 1917 revolution will be celebrated as a step in a linear historical narrative that puts the Putin regime at the conclusion. Much like the old Communist historical narrative that put capitalism on a step in their linear view of history. A history that ended with the final, utopian conclusion of Communism everywhere...

[C-Mag]

I suspect there will be commemoration of figures like Lenin and Trotsky, the but if only Stalin hadn't wrestled power from them. I also suspect that as you point out Bjorn, there will not be a lot of open support, but I think AntiFa, Communist Parties and hard line Socialists will hold their own events.


IMO, a hundred years is a great time to look back at events with a clear head. Everyone involved is dead, enough time has passed that propaganda of an event one way or another has subsided, but it is still close enough to have a feel for what happened and how it affected the near future.

[BjornP]

I suspect there will be commemoration of figures like Lenin and Trotsky, the but if only Stalin hadn't wrestled power from them. I also suspect that as you point out Bjorn, there will not be a lot of open support, but I think AntiFa, Communist Parties and hard line Socialists will hold their own events.

IMO, a hundred years is a great time to look back at events with a clear head. Everyone involved is dead, enough time has passed that propaganda of an event one way or another has subsided, but it is still close enough to have a feel for what happened and how it affected the near future.

I didn't say there wouldn't be alot of open support. It's just that Russians today don't look at Stalin and see "Evil Communist!", they see Stalin in much the same light Westerners saw/see Churchill following WW2. The point is that, for Russians, the seperation between Soviet and Russian doesn't have the same ideological aspect we in the West might expect.

Think of it like celebrating Thanksgiving. You're still celebrating an event that happened to settlers from a kingdom that, today, you're no longer part of, yet you still consider that event a formative part of your national identity. While the circumstances are different, it's sort of the same with how Russians see their relationship to their Soviet past.

Putin and United Russia are unlikely to use Soviet imagery or Communist rhetoric, but alot of Russians do lament the fall of the Soviet Union, in terms of it being their fallen superpower. They don't see it as the "Evil Empire", like the countries under the old Soviet "sphere of interest", "allies"/satellite states or outright annexed states like the Baltic states.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how they'll address the whole concept of (legitimate) revolt against the state in those celebrations.

[StCapps]

Communism is the end goal, it has never been achieved. 100 Years of Communism, more like 0 years of Communism.