October revolution: facts that are not written about in history textbooks

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

November 7 is the red day of the calendar. Most Russians associate this day (albeit somewhat vaguely) with red carnations, Lenin on an armored car, and the statement that "the lower classes do not want the old way, but the upper classes cannot do it in a new way." On this "revolutionary" day, we will cite just a few facts about the Great October Socialist Revolution or the October Revolution - whichever is more convenient for anyone.

In the Soviet years, November 7 was a special holiday and was called the "Day of the Great October Socialist Revolution". After the transition to the Gregorian calendar, the date of the beginning of the revolution shifted from October 25 to November 7, however, they did not rename the event that had already occurred and the revolution remained "October".

The revolutionary salvo turned out to be blank

The Great October Revolution began on October 25, 1917 at 21:40 local time. The signal for the beginning of active actions of the revolutionaries was a shot from the gun of the cruiser "Aurora". The shot was fired in the direction of the Winter Palace by order of the commissar A. V. Belyshev, and it was fired by Evdokim Pavlovich Ognev. It is noteworthy that the legendary shot at the Winter Palace was fired with a blank charge. Why this happened is unknown even today: either the Bolsheviks were afraid to destroy the palace, or they did not want unnecessary bloodshed, or the cruiser simply did not have any war charges.

The most hi-tech revolution

The revolutionary events of October 25 differ little from most of the armed riots or riots that have taken place in European history. Nevertheless, the October Revolution became the most "high-tech revolution" in the history of mankind. The fact is that after the last hotbed of resistance was suppressed in St. Petersburg, and control over the city passed to the revolutionaries, the first revolutionary radio address to the people in history took place. So, at 5 hours 10 minutes in the morning on October 26, the "Appeal to the people of Russia" was heard, in which the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee announced the transfer of power to the Soviets.

The storming of the Winter Palace is one of the most controversial events in history

The legendary storming of the Winter Palace is covered by historians in different ways. Some portray this event as almost the greatest feat of the revolutionaries, others describe the bloody atrocities of the sailors during the assault. According to the documents of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the losses of the revolutionaries during the assault amounted to only 6 people, and even those on the lists were listed as victims of an accident. In the comments to the losses in some of the lists, you can find notes: "blown up on a grenade of an unknown system due to personal negligence and negligence." There is no information about the killed defenders of the Winter Palace at all, but the archives are full of notes that the cadet, officer or soldier such and such was released there after the capture of Winter Palace, on parole not to take part in battles against the revolutionaries. However, there were still battles on the streets of Petrograd.

Revolutionaries are out-of-bounds or humanists

Modern historians love to convict revolutionaries of all kinds of crimes. So, for example, one of the most striking episodes is the case of the sailors, who, after the capture of the Winter Palace, plundered the wine cellar, got drunk and filled all the lower rooms with wine. However, it is not difficult to guess that this incriminating information could only become known from the archives of the revolutionaries themselves, which means that these actions were not only discouraged, but also regarded as a military crime.

It is worth noting that reports often contain information that on the night of October 25-26, a soldier such and such helped local residents to get home, bypassing those streets of Petrograd, on which there were shootings. They say that ghosts of revolutionaries and today they roam the streets of St. Petersburg.

However, revolutionaries have never been gentle and sweet people. Rather predatory, quarrelsome and dishonest. Lenin considered Trotsky a competitor and wrote nasty things about him. Trotsky, in turn, considered Lenin a man dishonest and unprincipled by revolutionary standards, and also "sowed mud" as he could. Lenin's trick is well known when he began to publish a newspaper in parallel with Trotsky called Pravda.

Lenin is a bloody dictator or leader of the proletariat

On October 25 at 10 o'clock in the morning, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin made an appeal "To the citizens of Russia":.

Lenin is one of the most controversial and contradictory personalities in the history of the revolution and Russia. Albert Einstein, being a rare humanist, respected Lenin as a person who is able to direct all his efforts towards achieving the goal of social equality and justice. At the same time, Einstein wrote that, to his deepest regret and disappointment, he could not approve of the methods by which Vladimir Ilyich achieved this good goal. It is also worth adding that later Albert Einstein will write that the Soviet Union became for him one of his biggest disappointments in world history.

It is worth noting that Vladimir Ilyich is one of the few political figures who have not left their autobiography. Only one sheet was found in the archives, on which Lenin made an attempt to begin a biography, but there was no continuation.

Modern points of view on revolutionary events differ greatly: some endlessly criticize the actions of revolutionaries, others defend, and still others take a centrist position, some try to get to the bottom of the truth and judge events impartially. In any case, this event once and for all changed the course of Russia's development and left a significant mark on world history. However, it turns out that in Spain a coup d'état takes place every year, though not seriously, but on festival-coup.