October revolution: lessons for Russia and the world

Abstract

The authors analyze lessons learned and implications of events of the revolutionary year of 1917 and note that the Russian people conducted a certain selection of positive and negative consequences of the October Socialist Revolution. Unfortunately, the Russian people did not have enough free and calm time for the global analysis because for most of the post-Revolutionary period the country was at either war, or preparing for a war. Despite extreme conditions of life and acuteness of perception and assessment of the past in the collective national conscience, the Russian society seems having been succeeded in understanding the main adages and general rules of life necessary for its continuing existence with the support of its whole preceding developmental experience. Most people in Russia believe that another Socialist Revolution for Russia is contraindicated. From the historical experience, people understand that new man-made catastrophes will lead the nation and the state to demise, while modern technogenic factors may extend this process to a global scale. Russian people have built up tolerance to revolutions. Among the hard evidence in favor of this conclusion, there are inescapable facts that in both 1991 and 1993, during the dissolution of the USSR and the siege of the Russian parliament, most of the citizens did not allow themselves to be involved into a dangerous struggle of powers. Today the majority of citizens does not want to join the protests to create a mass sufficient to launch a color revolution project in Russia following the Ukrainian scenario.