Forgotten holidays - October Revolution Day. October Revolution Day Revolution of 1917 what a holiday

There is hardly a period in the history of Russia that would cause such ambiguous assessments from scientists and the common population. Indeed, the October Revolution marked a fundamental shift in the paradigm of statehood at the cost of incredible human sacrifice.

October Revolution of 1917

According to various estimates, up to 30 million people died during the armed uprising. On November 7, 1917, the rebels stormed the Winter Palace and later shot the royal family. The Great Socialist Revolution destroyed the Tsarist regime and proclaimed the power of the Soviets, which lasted for more than seventy years. The Day of the October Revolution was proclaimed immediately, and under Stalin the canons and rules for holding the holiday were formalized: demonstrations of the working class, speeches by leaders and colorful parades of the Red Army. IN modern Russia, in accordance with amendments to the federal law“On the days of military glory”, Vladimir Putin approved the Day of the October Revolution of 1917 on November 7.

Where is the anniversary of the revolution celebrated?

During the existence of the Soviet Union, Revolution Day was a national holiday. With the collapse of the USSR and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, this date is celebrated on a large scale only in Russia and Belarus.

Controversial news on the eve of the October Revolution Day was the decision of the President of Kyrgyzstan Atambayev to rename the holiday the Day of History and Remembrance of Ancestors. This step was dictated by Atambayev’s desire to emphasize the fact that during the revolution the very existence of the Kyrgyz people was threatened by the tsarist punitive forces.

How to celebrate Revolution Day in 2017 in Russia

The celebration will begin with the laying of wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Lenin Mausoleum. The evening will continue at the Rossiya concert hall in Luzhniki, and on November 6, the International Forum of Left Forces will be held at the Renaissance Moscow Hotel, where representatives of communist parties from all over the world, including the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, will gather.

Vladimir Vyatkin

118 events are planned: seminars, exhibitions, music festivals.

To attract the attention of Russians to the October Revolution, the State Museum modern history organized the exhibition "1917. Code of the Revolution", which will be available for viewing in an interactive online version. The exhibition opened in March this year at the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia on Tverskaya. It presents 1,500 unique artifacts: portholes from the cruiser Aurora, telephone sets from the headquarters of revolutionaries, magazines and propaganda posters of those times.

Also, the TASS news agency organized the “Collision with the Abyss” project. They digitized the entire archival fund of the October Revolution, 80% of which was never shown to the general public.

On the anniversary of the October Revolution in St. Petersburg there will be a light show on Palace Square. Architectural ensemble The square will become one large screen on which paintings and videos dedicated to the events of the revolution will be shown.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, the Pridnestrovian Republican Bank issued thirty thousand nickel coins worth 3 rubles: symbols of the revolution and the coat of arms of the Soviet Union are depicted on both sides of the coin.

An exhibition of 17 thousand posters is being prepared in Belarus.

The attitude of Russian society to the October Revolution

Returning to the controversial nature of the holiday, it is worth noting that according to 2017 polls, 46 percent of Russians assessed the revolution as an event necessary for the people, and almost the same number believed that the revolution benefited only a small group of the political elite. At the same time, a comparison with a survey 14 years ago revealed a positive connection between a negative assessment of the October Revolution and the passage of time. Thus, in 2003, 22 percent of Russians considered the Bolsheviks’ rise to power legitimate, but in 2017 only 9 percent held this opinion.

And, nevertheless, the Great October Socialist Revolution is the most important milestone in the history of Russia, which to a large extent determined the future of the country and the world. It clearly demonstrated the finitude of any regime and determined the price of freedom, albeit so uncertain and dubious.

Every year in Russia a memorable date is celebrated - October Revolution Day 1917.

Formally, this holiday, established in 2005, actually has a long history in our country and is familiar to any person born and raised in the Soviet Union. Until 1991, November 7 was the main holiday of the USSR and was called the Day of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

Throughout the Soviet era, November 7 was a “red day of the calendar,” that is, a public holiday, which was celebrated not only with a special color in the diary, but also with mandatory labor demonstrations that took place in every city in the country. The history of this holiday ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the debunking of communist ideology.

In modern Russia, the holiday was first renamed the Day of Harmony and Reconciliation (with a hint of the necessary reconciliation of supporters of different ideological views), and then abolished altogether. However, in some former republics of the USSR it continues to exist to this day: in Kyrgyzstan, November 7 remains a day off and a public holiday, and in Belarus it received a new name - October Revolution Day - but is still celebrated.

In Russia, November 7 ceased to be a holiday, but was included in the list of memorable dates. The corresponding law was adopted in 2005. This decision can be considered fair: despite the controversial ideological background of the former holiday, it is difficult to deny the significance of this date in the history of the country. The uprising in Petrograd in 1917, which ended with the socialist revolution, predetermined everything further development not only Russia, but also many other countries of the world.

For those who have studied history already in modern Russia and, perhaps, have not paid enough attention to this milestone, it is worth recalling. On the night of November 7 to 8 (according to the new style, and according to the old style this happened from October 25 to 26), 1917, an uprising occurred in Petrograd. At the signal, which was the shot of the cruiser Aurora, armed workers, soldiers and sailors captured the Winter Palace, overthrew the Provisional Government and proclaimed Soviet Power, which lasted in our country for 73 years.

As you know, in 1948 the legendary cruiser - a symbol of the October Revolution - was withdrawn from the fleet and placed in eternal berth near the Petrogradskaya embankment in Leningrad.

We see the city of Petrograd
In the seventeenth year:
The sailor is running, the soldier is running,
They shoot on the move.

A worker drags a machine gun.
Now he will enter the battle.
There is a poster: “Down with the gentlemen!
Down with the landowners!”

Carried by detachments and regiments
Kumach cloths,
And ahead are the Bolsheviks,
Ilyich's guards.

October! Forever overthrownpower
Bourgeois and nobles.
So in October the dream came true
Workers and peasants.

The victory was not easy,
But Lenin led the people
And Lenin saw far away,
For many years to come.

And the correctness of your ideas -
Great person -
He is all working people
United forever……….

October 7th– October Revolution Day, an annual memorial date with a long history. In modern Russia of the “zero” this holiday is called as Day of consent and reconciliation, but the date of the start of the uprising and the peculiar “Birthday of the USSR” cannot be forgotten, therefore this “red day of the calendar” cannot be crossed out with either a sickle or a hammer. Especially in 2017, on the centenary day of the revolution

The history of the holiday is October Revolution Day 1917.

Day of the Great October Revolution- this is exactly how it was supposed to denote the birth of a new state in the USSR, that is, with three capital letters. It was on November 7, 1917 in Petrograd (which later became Leningrad, now St. Petersburg) that rebels - workers, sailors - seized the Winter Palace and overthrew the provisional government. According to the old style, this happened on the night of October 26-27, according to the new style - from November 7 to 8. The new government proclaimed itself the Power of the Soviets. The tsarist past of Russia was gradually put to an end, and a new state emerged on the map - the USSR - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which greatly influenced world history, also leaving an almost indelible mark on the worldview of the citizens of today's Russia.

It is noteworthy that November 7 marks another date that occurred during the Soviet era, and this is the Day of Military Glory of Russia. On November 7, 1941, a large-scale military parade took place on Red Square in honor of the 24th anniversary of the socialist revolution. The event coincided with the start of the counteroffensive Soviet troops against Hitler's troops near Moscow. It was from this parade that day that the soldiers went to the front...

The symbol of the beginning of the 1917 revolution was the legendary cruiser Aurora. The signal to begin the capture of the Winter Palace was a shot from a cruiser. The cruiser's crew took an active part in the coup and overthrow of the provisional government. “Aurora” still stands on the Petrogradskaya embankment, permanently parked.

Great Russian Revolution- a radical turning point in Russian history. The process, which has affected all spheres of public life, has not yet acquired an unambiguous assessment in the historical consciousness of modern Russia, which is experiencing a period of social, cultural and political transformation. Many aspects of this period Russian history remain undisclosed or disclosed in a biased and politically biased manner.

For more than 70 years, this “red day of the calendar” was the main holiday of the country. For most of the twentieth century, millions of our fellow citizens in three generations celebrated November 7 - the Day of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

The holiday, officially called the Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, was first celebrated in 1918, and became a day off in 1927. The first state celebration was not held on November 7, 1991, but the day itself, November 7, remained a holiday until 2005.

In 1996, by Yeltsin’s decree, it was simply renamed and became known as the Day of Reconciliation and Harmony. At the end of 2004, the State Duma adopted a law according to which this holiday was abolished, and instead a new holiday was introduced with a day off - November 4, which was called National Unity Day.

2017 is the year of the centenary of the 1917 Revolution. The centenary milestone is significant for historical memory. It is now necessary to support the trend of reconciling society with the events of 1917 and promote the popularization of high-quality historical knowledge to draw lessons from them.

The centenary of October is not a reason to make peace, no, reconcile with your history and with your ideological opponents. In any case, persistently try to do this. This is our story. There is no other and there never will be.

For more than 70 years, the anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution was the main holiday of the Soviet Union. Throughout the Soviet era, November 7 was a “red day of the calendar,” that is, a public holiday, celebrated with obligatory festive events that took place in every Soviet city. This was the case until 1991, when the USSR collapsed and communist ideology was almost recognized as criminal. IN Russian Federation this day was first renamed the Day of Accord and Reconciliation, hinting at the need to complete civil war in the country’s information field and the reconciliation of supporters of different ideological views, and then canceled completely. November 7 ceased to be a holiday, but was included in the list of memorable dates. The corresponding law was adopted in 2010. In 2005, in connection with the establishment of a new state holiday (National Unity Day), November 7 ceased to be a day off.

This day cannot be erased from Russia, since the uprising in Petrograd on October 25-26 (November 7-8, new style) led not only to the overthrow of the bourgeois Provisional Government, but also predetermined the entire further development of both Russia and many other states of the planet.

Brief chronicle of events

By the autumn of 1917, the policy of the Provisional Government led Russian state on the brink of disaster. Not only the outskirts broke away from Russia, but also Cossack autonomies were formed. In Kyiv, separatists laid claim to power. Even Siberia had its own autonomous government. The armed forces disintegrated and could not continue military operations, soldiers deserted in tens of thousands. The front was falling apart. Russia could no longer resist the coalition of the Central Powers. Finances and the economy were disorganized. Problems began with the food supply of cities, and the government began to carry out food appropriation. Peasants seized land, hundreds of landowners' estates burned. Russia was in a “limbo” because the Provisional Government postponed the resolution of fundamental issues until the convening of the Constituent Assembly.

A wave of chaos covered the country. The autocracy, which was the core of the entire empire, was destroyed. But they gave him nothing in return. People felt free from all taxes, duties and laws. The provisional government, whose policies were determined by liberal and left-wing figures, could not establish a viable order, moreover, its actions aggravated the situation. Suffice it to recall the “democratization” of the army during the war. Petrograd de facto lost control over the country.

The Bolsheviks decided to take advantage of this. Until the summer of 1917, they were not considered a serious political force, inferior in popularity and numbers to the Cadets and Socialist Revolutionaries. But by the fall of 1917 their popularity had grown. Their program was clear and understandable to the masses. Power during this period could have been taken by virtually any force that showed political will. The Bolsheviks became this force.

In August 1917, they headed for an armed uprising and socialist revolution. This happened at the VI Congress of the RSDLP(b). However, at that time the Bolshevik Party was actually underground. The most revolutionary regiments of the Petrograd garrison were disbanded, and the workers who sympathized with the Bolsheviks were disarmed. The opportunity to recreate armed structures appeared only during the Kornilov rebellion. The idea had to be postponed. Only on October 10 (23) did the Central Committee adopt a resolution on the preparation of an uprising. On October 16 (29), an extended meeting of the Central Committee, in which representatives of the districts took part, confirmed the previously made decision.

On October 12 (25), 1917, to protect the revolution from the “openly preparing attack by military and civilian Kornilovites,” the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee was established on the initiative of the Chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, Leon Trotsky. The Military Revolutionary Committee included not only the Bolsheviks, but also some left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists. In fact, this body coordinated the preparation of the armed uprising. The Military Revolutionary Committee included representatives of the Central Committee, Petrograd and military party organizations of the Bolshevik and Left Socialist Revolutionary parties, delegates of the presidium and soldiers' section of the Petrograd Soviet, representatives of the headquarters of the Red Guard, the Central Committee of the Baltic Fleet and the Central Fleet, factory and industrial committees, etc. Military Revolutionary Committee detachments of the Red Guard, soldiers of the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Baltic Fleet, soldiers of the Petrograd garrison and sailors of the Baltic Fleet were subordinate. Operational work was carried out by the Bureau of the Military Revolutionary Committee. It was formally headed by the left Socialist Revolutionary Pavel Lazimir, but almost all decisions were made by the Bolsheviks Leon Trotsky, Nikolai Podvoisky and Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko.

With the help of the Military Revolutionary Committee, the Bolsheviks established close contacts with the soldier committees of the Petrograd garrison formations. In fact, leftist forces not only restored the pre-July dual power in the city, but also began to establish their control over the military forces. When the Provisional Government decided to send revolutionary regiments to the front, the Petrograd Soviet ordered a review of the order and decided that the order was dictated not by strategic, but by political motives. The regiments were ordered to remain in Petrograd. The commander of the military district prohibited the release of weapons to workers from the arsenals of the city and suburbs, but the Council issued warrants and the weapons were issued. The Petrograd Soviet also stopped the attempt of the Provisional Government to arm its supporters with the help of the arsenal of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Units of the Petrograd garrison declared their disobedience to the Provisional Government. On October 21, a meeting of representatives of the garrison regiments was held, which recognized the Petrograd Soviet as the only legitimate authority in the city. From that moment on, the Military Revolutionary Committee began to appoint its own commissars to military units, replacing the commissars of the Provisional Government. On the night of October 22, the Military Revolutionary Committee demanded that the headquarters of the Petrograd Military District recognize the powers of its commissars, and on the 22nd it announced the subordination of the garrison. On October 23, the Military Revolutionary Committee won the right to create an advisory body at the headquarters of the Petrograd district. On the same day, Trotsky personally carried out campaigning in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where they still doubted which side to take. By October 24, the Military Revolutionary Committee appointed its commissars to 51 units, as well as to arsenals, weapons depots, railway stations and factories. In fact, by the beginning of the uprising, leftist forces had established military control over the capital. The provisional government was incapacitated and failed to respond decisively. As Trotsky himself later admitted, “the armed uprising took place in Petrograd in two stages: in the first half of October, when the Petrograd regiments, obeying the resolution of the Council, which fully corresponded to their own sentiments, refused with impunity to carry out the order of the high command, and on October 25, when only a small an additional uprising that cut the umbilical cord of February statehood.”

Therefore, significant clashes and big blood it wasn’t, the Bolsheviks simply took power. The guards of the Provisional Government and the formations loyal to them surrendered without a fight or went home. No one wanted to shed their blood for the “temporary workers.” Thus, the Cossacks were ready to support the Provisional Government, but with the reinforcement of their regiments with machine guns, armored cars and infantry. Due to the failure to fulfill the conditions proposed by the Cossack regiments, the Council of Cossack Troops decided not to take any part in suppressing the Bolshevik uprising and recalled the 2 hundred Cossacks and the machine gun team of the 14th regiment that had already been sent.

Since October 24, detachments of the Petrograd Military Revolutionary Committee occupied all key points of the city: bridges, train stations, telegraphs, printing houses, power plants and banks. When the head of the Provisional Government, Kerensky, ordered the arrest of members of the Military Revolutionary Committee, there was no one to carry out the arrest order. It must be said that in August-September 1917, the Provisional Government had every opportunity to prevent an uprising and physically liquidate the Bolshevik Party. But the “Februaryists” did not do this, being confident that the Bolshevik action was guaranteed to be defeated. Right-wing socialists and cadets knew about the preparations for the uprising, but believed that it would develop according to the July scenario - demonstrations demanding the resignation of the government. At this time, they planned to bring up loyal troops and units from the front. But there were no rallies, armed people simply occupied key facilities in the capital, and all this was done without firing a single shot, calmly and methodically. Members of the Provisional Government led by Kerensky for some time could not even understand what was happening, since they were cut off from the outside world. The actions of the revolutionaries could only be known from indirect signs: at some point the telephone connection in the Winter Palace was lost, then the electricity. The government sat in the Winter Palace, where it held meetings, waited for the troops that were called from the front, and belatedly sent out appeals to the population and the garrison. Apparently, the government members hoped to sit out in the palace until the troops arrived from the front. The mediocrity of its members is visible even in the fact that officials did nothing to defend their last citadel - the Winter Palace: no ammunition or food was prepared. They couldn't even feed the cadets lunch.

By the morning of October 25 (November 7), the Provisional Government in Petrograd had only the Winter Palace left. By the end of the day, he was “defended” by about 200 women from the women’s shock battalion, 2-3 companies of mustacheless cadets and several dozen disabled soldiers - St. George’s Knights. The security began to disperse even before the assault. The Cossacks were the first to leave, embarrassed by the fact that the largest infantry unit was “women with guns.” Then they left on the orders of their boss, cadet of the Mikhailovsky Artillery School. So the defense of the Winter Palace lost artillery. Some of the cadets from the Oranienbaum school also left. General Bagratuni refused to bear the responsibilities of commander and left the Winter Palace. The footage of the famous storming of the Winter Palace is a beautiful myth. Most of the guards went home. The entire assault consisted of a sluggish firefight. Its scale can be understood from the losses: six soldiers and one drummer were killed. At 2 a.m. on October 26 (November 8), members of the Provisional Government were arrested. Kerensky himself escaped in advance, leaving accompanied by the American ambassador's car under the American flag.

It should be noted that the MRC operation turned out to be brilliant only with the complete passivity and incompetence of the Provisional Government. If a general of the Napoleonic (Suvorov) type with several combat-ready units had come out against the Bolsheviks, the uprising would have been easily suppressed. The soldiers of the garrison and the workers of the Red Guard, who had succumbed to propaganda, could not resist the battle-hardened warriors. Besides, they didn’t really want to fight. Thus, neither the workers of the city nor the garrison of Petrograd for the most part took part in the uprising. And during the shelling of the Winter Palace from the guns of the Peter and Paul Fortress, only 2 shells slightly touched the cornice of the Winter Palace. Trotsky later admitted that even the most loyal of the artillerymen deliberately fired past the palace. The attempt to use the guns of the cruiser Aurora also failed: due to its location, the warship could not fire at the Winter Palace. We limited ourselves to a single salvo. And the Winter Palace itself, if its defense had been well organized, could have held out for a long time, especially taking into account the low combat effectiveness of the forces surrounding it. Thus, Antonov-Ovseenko described the picture of the “assault” as follows: “Disorderly crowds of sailors, soldiers, and Red Guards either float to the gates of the palace, then retreat.”

Simultaneously with the uprising in Petrograd, the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Moscow Council took control of key points in the city. This is where things didn't go so smoothly. The Public Safety Committee, under the leadership of the Chairman of the City Duma Vadim Rudnev, with the support of cadets and Cossacks, began fighting against the Council. The fighting continued until November 3, when the Committee of Public Safety capitulated.

In general, Soviet power was established in the country easily and without much bloodshed. The revolution was immediately supported in the Central Industrial Region, where local Soviets of Workers' Deputies were already in fact in control of the situation. In the Baltic states and Belarus, Soviet power was established in October - November 1917, and in the Central Black Earth region, the Volga region and Siberia - until the end of January 1918. This process was called the “triumphant march of Soviet power.” The process of the largely peaceful establishment of Soviet power throughout Russia became yet another proof of the complete degradation of the Provisional Government and the need for the Bolsheviks to seize power.

On the evening of October 25, the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets opened in Smolny, which proclaimed the transfer of all power to the Soviets. On October 26, the Council adopted the Decree on Peace. All warring countries were invited to begin negotiations on concluding a general democratic peace. The Land Decree transferred landowners' lands to peasants. All mineral resources, forests and waters were nationalized. At the same time, a government was formed - the Council of People's Commissars, headed by Vladimir Lenin.

Subsequent events confirmed the Bolsheviks were right. Russia was on the verge of destruction. The old project was destroyed, and only a new project could save Russia. The Bolsheviks gave it.

The Bolsheviks are often accused of destroying “old Russia,” but this is not true. The Russian Empire was killed by the “Februaryists”. The “fifth column” included: part of the generals, high dignitaries, bankers, industrialists, representatives of liberal democratic parties, many of whom were members of Masonic lodges, most of the intelligentsia who hated the “prison of nations.” In general, most of the “elite” of Russia destroyed the empire with their own hands. It was these people who killed “old Russia”. The Bolsheviks during this period were marginal, in fact they were on the sidelines political life. But they were able to offer Russia and its people a common project, program and goal. The Bolsheviks showed political will and took power while their competitors were debating the future of Russia.

Until 1996, the Day of the October Revolution remained the main event in all former Soviet republics. The holiday was celebrated on an incredible scale: demonstrations of workers, military marches, greetings of the population by political leaders from the rostrum of the Mausoleum. In the modern history of the Russian Federation, the memorable date was initially renamed the Day of Reconciliation and Accord, and later completely ceased to be a day off. In 2004, a decision was made at the level of the country's president, and a corresponding law was issued stating that the memorable date was excluded from the list of holidays.

Story

The night from November 7 to 8, 1917 brought Russian Empire a new stage in development: in St. Petersburg, following the salvo of the cruiser Aurora, workers, sailors and brave soldiers rebelled. The people overthrew the Provisional Government and captured the Winter Palace. On a significant day, the power of the Soviets was declared.

The October Revolution marked the beginning of colossal changes in society:

introduction of an eight-hour standard working day;
right to rest;
workers' control over the distribution of products;
proclaimed decrees on power and equality;
the land is transferred to the use of the peasants, and power to the workers.

Significant events in the celebration of October Revolution Day 1917:

1948 - the legendary revolutionary ship was withdrawn from the flotilla and shipped to permanent berth in St. Petersburg's Petrograd embankment;
1917-1970 - the great holiday was perceived as the largest event of our time, after 1970 it was inferior to the New Year and May 9;
March 13, 1995 - B. Yeltsin abolished the October Revolution holiday, calling November 7 the Day of Defense of the Capital by the Troops of Pozharsky and Minin (1612);
November 7, 1996 - the memorable date is given the name: Day of Accord and Reconciliation;
con December 2004 - Vladimir Putin calls the date the Day of Military Glory of the Russian Federation.

Traditions

Traditions were respected no matter what: on November 7, 1941, when the front line reached the borders of Moscow, a military parade took place. According to the survey, 18% of pensioners, in the old fashioned way, celebrate and remember the grandeur with which the anniversary was celebrated in the Soviet era. The significant day was usually celebrated for 2 days: demonstrations were held in every city of the Soviet Union, in which all residents of the country, young and old, participated. Today the great event is mentioned in the press and on television.