RUSSIA STRUGGLES WITH LEGACY OF 1917 REVOLUTION
Wounds have not healed in the century that followed a conflict that killed millions
They played key roles in Russia’s 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, which triggered a civil war that killed millions, devastated the country and redrew its borders. A century later, their descendants say these historic wounds have not healed. As Russia approaches the centennial of the uprising, it has struggled to come to terms with the legacy of those who remade the nation. The Kremlin is avoiding any official commemoration of the anniversary, tiptoeing around the event that remains polarising for many and could draw unwelcome parallels to the present.
Alexis Rodzianko, whose great-grandfather was speaker of the pre-revolutionary Russian parliament and pushed Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate but later regretted it, sees the revolution as a calamity that threw Russia backwards.
“Any evolutionary development would have been better than what happened,” said Mr Rodzianko, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia. “The main lesson I certainly would hope is that Russia never tries that again.”
He said the revolution and the civil war, combined with the devastation of World War II and the overall legacy of the Soviet system, eroded Russia’s potential and left its economy a fraction of what it could have been.
A similar view is held by Vyacheslav Nikonov, a Kremlin-connected lawmaker whose grandfather, Vyacheslav Molotov, played an important role in staging the Bolshevik power grab on Nov 7, 1917, and served as a member of the Communist leadership for four decades.
Mr Nikonov describes the revolution as “one of the greatest tragedies of Russian history”.
The anniversary is a tricky moment for President Vladimir Putin.
While he has been critical of revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin, Mr Putin can’t denounce the event that gave birth to the Soviet Union and is still revered by many of his supporters. But Mr Putin, a KGB veteran, disdains any popular uprisings, and he certainly wouldn’t praise the revolution, which destroyed the Russian empire.
The Kremlin has blamed the US for helping to oust some unpopular rulers in former Soviet nations and for instigating Arab Spring democracy uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. Mr Putin has also accused Washington of encouraging big demonstrations against him in Moscow in 2011-12.
Mr Nikonov echoes Mr Putin’s claims of outside meddling.
“Our Western friends are spending a lot of money on all sort of organisations, which are working to undermine the Russian government,” he said.
The government’s low-key treatment of the centennial reflects deep divisions in Russia over the revolution, said Mr Nikonov, who chairs a committee on education and science in the Kremlin-controlled lower house of parliament.
A nationwide poll last month by the research company VTsIOM showed opinions over the revolution split almost evenly, with 46% saying it served interests of the majority and the same number responding that only a few benefited; the rest were undecided. The poll of 1,800 people had a margin of error of no more than 2.5% points.
During Soviet times, Nov 7 was known as Revolution Day and featured grand military parades and demonstrations on Red Square. After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia stopped celebrating it, although the Communists still marked it.
“There is no way you can celebrate the revolution so that the majority of the public would support that,” Mr Nikonov said. “There is no common interpretation of history of the revolution, and I don’t think it’s possible in any foreseeable future. So I think the best way for the government in that situation is just keep a low profile.”
Vyacheslav Molotov remained a steadfast believer in the Communist cause until his 1986 death in Moscow at age 96. Mr Nikonov, his grandson, believes the revolution denied Russia a victory in World War I.
“At the beginning of the year, Russia was one of the great powers with perfect chances of winning the war in a matter of months,’’ he said. “Then the government was destroyed. By the end of the year, Russia wasn’t a power, it was incapable of anything.”
Mr Putin has famously described the 1991 Soviet collapse as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century,” but he also has deplored the 1917 revolution. This ambivalence is rooted in his desire to tap the achievements of both the tsarist and the Soviet empires as part of restoring Russia’s international clout and prestige.
Mr Putin uses the symbols of various eras to burnish national glory. He has restored the Soviet-style national anthem and kept the imperial tricolour flag and double-headed eagle coat-of-arms.
He has ignored demands to remove Lenin’s embalmed body from its Red Square mausoleum for burial. But he also has encouraged the steady growth of power and influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and conservative elements in society. Monuments and shrines to Nicholas II, who has been glorified as a saint, have sprouted across Russia, although they are still far outnumbered by statues and memorials to Lenin.
Mr Rodzianko said his great-grandfather, Mikhail Rodzianko, quickly regretted pushing the tsar to abdicate.
“He always tortured himself,” he said. “’Could I have done anything else to prevent this?’ was the phrase that I heard he apparently used.”
Days after the monarchy fell in February 1917, the Duma speaker found himself sidelined as too conservative for the new provisional government. When that liberal entity was swept away by the Bolsheviks, he joined the White movement in the civil war against the Reds, then left Russia after its defeat. Mikhail Rodzianko died in Belgrade in 1924.
While Mr Rodzianko’s great-grandfather fought for the White cause, Mr Nikonov’s grandfather, Vyacheslav Molotov, was Lenin’s righthand man throughout Russia’s revolution and civil war.
Molotov later became No.2 to Josef Stalin, serving as his prime minister and then foreign minister in the 1930s-1940s. He fell from favour in Stalin’s last years; in 1949, his wife was arrested and sent to the Gulag. After Stalin died in 1953, Molotov won her quick release from prison.