Bolshevik Revolution: Ten Days That Shook the World Still Shake

The Cruiser Aurora, where the “first shot” of the Bolshevik Revolution came from and began seventy years of communism. From a Soviet-era photograph in then Leningrad.

This week we remember the Bolshevik Revolution. I’d have to say that the “ten days that shook the world” (to use John Reed’s phrase) have certainly shaken my life. But it was the back end of that revolution–the collapse of the Soviet Union and its aftermath–where things really got interesting for me, and the world looks different after that experience.

A video of a 1990 trip to the then Soviet Union:

I’ve done many pieces on the subject, some of them are as follows:

Visit to Zagorsk, my trip to the centre of the Russian Orthodox Church
Rising From the Pool, the “resurrection” of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow
Who’s This Idiot? That’s Me! A humourous look at the effect of Gorbachev’s perestroika on the bureaucracy
Russian Spying: It Didn’t Do Us Much Good. All that espionage and the place still collapsed
Half a Million Roubles. Is it Enough? Socialism’s greatest achievement was to make everyone a millionaire.
He is Prepared to Sign Anything, what happens when bad Russian habits come to America
NPO Vniistroidormash, some nice photos and drawings of heavy construction equipment