From Vladimir to Vladimir - 100 years since October Revolution

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin — one of the world’s foremost proponents of revolution — set out to replace Russia’s feudal social order with a “dictatorship of the proletariat.”

Lenin ruthlessly cracked down on dissent using the Red Terror, carried out by the Cheka secret police, and his propaganda of lies for strategic advantage.

A century later President Vladimir Putin has expanded Russia’s territorial boundaries with the annexation of Crimea, and has allegedly manipulated European and American elections by using cyber warfare to spread propaganda.

100th anniversary of Russia’s October revolution

One century ago 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.

The centenary Revolution Day* presents a dilemma for Russia’s current President Vladimir Putin. 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 Mr. Putin ordered Kremlin strategist Sergei Kirienko to tell Russia’s state media companies to play down the occasion -- 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.