Lichtgedanken 03

Rubrik 47 03 | Lichtgedanken Calendar: The myth of the October Revolution Hundred years ago, on 25 October 1917, the Bolsheviks took over the reigns from the Provisional Government in Russia. The upheaval at the Winter Palace turned to a glorification of the Great October Socialist Revolution which was illustrated accordingly later. It is a myth that has endured to the present day. ticularly the Mensheviks who had been defeated in the elec- tion. Having a great power, the myth of the storm on the Win- ter Palace made its way to German textbooks, too. Whereas in East Germany the Soviet interpretation was adopted, in West Germany one could find »images« of the October Revolution even in the nineties—despite the fact that none exist. Up until today, documentaries have been trying to replace the missing images by film clips, especially from the one by Eisenstein. But only a few of them refer to the source—enabling the myth to endure. BY STEPHAN LAUDIEN The shot fired from the armoured cruiser Aurora (»red sky at morning«) was the signal for the storm on the Winter Palace and heralded the new era of Communism at the same time. Thousands of Bolsheviks attacked the hated palace of the Rus- sian tsars in Saint Petersburg and gained the victory—a strong signal for the workers in the whole world. What a story! Well, it is not a true one. »From its beginnings, the October Revolution was a myth arranged as such,« says the historian specialized in the East European history Prof. Dr Jörg Ganzenmüller. According to him, the term »revoluti- on« itself is not tenable. In 1917, there were no revolutionary masses on the streets. It was rather a concentrated action in which the Provisional Government was arrested and strategic points in Saint Petersburg were occupied. Jörg Ganzenmüller describes it as an overthrow. In spite of this, the myth of the Great October Revolution lives on, even hundreds years later. It is the images of the events to be blamed for it, to be more accurate, those missing. The people already rose in February 1917. The reason for the revolution was a provision crisis in the Russian Empire which had been due to the WorldWar I. After the tsar Nicholas II. had been forced to abdicate, the power was shared by the Provi- sional Government and the soviets, i.e. workers’ and soldiers’ councils. Since the Provisional Government kept fighting in the unpopular war, Lenin and his Bolsheviks seized its power. The vast majority of images originate in a film by Eisenstein »The Bolsheviks had been enjoying the support among wor- kers and soldiers,« explains Jörg Ganzenmüller. In the Cons- tituent Assembly elections of 1918, they thus received 25 per- cent of votes. In the October Revolution, however, the masses were not involved. Later on, the event was therefore arranged accordingly. Apart from the events on the historic sites on the anniversaries, the images were provided by the film October: Ten Days That Shook the World by Sergei Eisenstein from 1927 primarily. In vast majority, the images of event, which we still have in mind, originate in this film. As Jörg Ganzenmüller comments, the Bolsheviks aimed at suggesting to posterity that the masses had been on their side. As a matter of fact, in 1918 the majority of population voted for the Socialist Revolu- tionary Party—agrarian socialists popular with the peasants. »After the Bolsheviks had won the civil war, they wanted to be seen as the revolutionary force,« says Prof. Ganzenmüller. At the same time, the competitive socialist parties should have been marginalized—apart from the social revolutionists, par- A bust of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, alias Lenin. The October »Revolution« he led was rather an overthrow than a revolution. To the present day, false images have been circulating about the event.