Marking events that shook the world

Most cities still have a Lenin standing proudly in their main squares. Photo / AP

On an evening at Moscow's State Tretyakov Gallery, Vladimir Lenin paced back and forth, debating the finer points of Marxist theory, Vladimir Mayakovsky thundered staccato lines of poetry from atop a pedestal, and the monk Grigory Rasputin mused on the future of Russia.

The event, in which hundreds of Moscow's artistic and creative elite dressed as Tsarist-era aristocrats, ate black caviar by the spoonful and drank champagne, was the launch party for an ambitious new project designed to bring the events of 1917 to life for modern Russians 100 years later.

As the country enters the centenary of the tumultuous year that ended tsarism and ushered in the 70-year communist experiment, President Vladimir Putin faces the dilemma of how to commemorate the events that had such a huge effect on Russia and the world.

"There is no officially approved narrative of 1917; it's too difficult and complicated," said Mikhail Zygar, the journalist who is running the reconstruction project. "But it's a very important period to help understand what's happening in Russia now, and very important for the national consciousness."

The year featured two revolutions: the February revolution (actually in March, according to the modern calendar) deposed Tsar Nicholas II after more than 300 years of rule by the Romanov dynasty, ushering in a brief period in which hopes for a democratic future flourished. Lenin's Bolsheviks, a small, marginal faction of fanatics who were not taken seriously in the aftermath of the February uprising, took control in the October revolution (actually in November).

During the Soviet period, November 7, the anniversary of the revolution, was the biggest holiday of the year, and Lenin was memorialised in statues, literature and legends imparted to every Soviet schoolchild. "While children now grow up with Harry Potter, I grew up with Lenin," said Zygar.

During his long years in power, Putin has used history to help create a sense of national destiny and unity in Russia, most notably elevating victory in World War II to something close to a national cult. More recently, figures from the distant past have also been co-opted into the narrative, including Vladimir the Great, the prince of Kiev who adopted Orthodox Christianity in 988, whose monument was erected outside the Kremlin last month. A monument has even been unveiled to Ivan the Terrible, a ruthless ruler who killed his own son, on the basis that he doubled Russia's territory.

Under Putin, Russians are encouraged to see history as a long list of achievements, with darker elements such as Stalin's purges and the Gulag brushed to one side. In this context, 1917 is problematic. On the one hand, the Soviet state that came from the revolution was the one that won the war and whose military and scientific achievements Putin thinks should be venerated. But on the other hand Putin has elevated "stability" to being one of the key tenets of his rule, and as such celebrating a revolution goes against the very grain of his political philosophy. Putin's main public comments on the anniversary so far have suggested he views the year as a tragedy for the Russian nation.

Across the country, the iconography of the revolution and its leaders is still confused. Visitors to Moscow can still pay their respects to Lenin's mummified corpse. The last Tsar and his family have been made into saints by the Russian Orthodox Church, and yet a Moscow metro station is still named after Pyotr Voikov, the man responsible for organising their execution. Most cities still have a Lenin standing proudly in their main squares; many streets retain their Soviet names.

A survey on Ekho Moskvy radio about whether people would support the February revolution against Nicholas II found that only 47 per cent said they would; 53 per cent wouldn't.

- Observer