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Showing posts from November 21, 2017

A COMMEMORATION WITHOUT FANFARE

This month marked the centennial of Red October, the Russian Revolution that ended the czarist empire and laid the groundwork for the Soviet Union. The strange fact that Red October is commemorated in November (November 7 th to be precise) is due to the fact that, up to the time of the revolution, the Russian Empire still used the Gregorian calendar, instead of today’s Julian calendar, resulting in a 13-day gap. Sparse crowds  view a centennial display in Moscow Photo by Peter Kovalev/TASS For those of us who can remember back to the height of the former Soviet Union’s power and what a typical anniversary of the 1917 communist revolution might have looked like back then, this year’s ceremonies marking the 100 th anniversary of the Russian Revolution couldn’t have been more anemic. There were no official events planned to recall—for better or worse—what was clearly a life-changing event in the history of Russia and, indeed, the world. In fact, President Vladimir Putin back