{"id":3846,"date":"2005-11-07T12:27:32","date_gmt":"2005-11-07T17:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3846"},"modified":"2022-10-09T20:42:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T00:42:00","slug":"today-in-history-nov-7-1917","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=3846","title":{"rendered":"Today in History: Nov. 7, 1917"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bunch of rogues with the idea that they could create a new kind of human being through state control took over Russia!<\/p>\n

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\nI love the grainy old photographs of all of them – they always look so twinkly and jolly, don’t they? It’s such a dichotomy. A more humorless bunch has never existed. Stalin’s face always seems to be twinkling, as though he is Santa Claus on his day off. It’s creepy. But they ALL look like that to me. Like they are chortling from on high. I say “I love the grainy old photographs” not cause it does my heart good to see Trotsky smiling – but because I find them VERY interesting. Especially, as I mentioned, the collective twinkle in the eye.<\/p>\n

CREEPY.<\/p>\n

On this day, the workers seized the government buildings and put out a proclamation declaring the new government. There was almost no resistance.<\/p>\n

Oversimplify? You accuse me of oversimplifying? I NEVER oversimplify … (quote from What’s Up Doc?<\/i>)<\/p>\n

Here are a couple of sites with information about the Russian Revolution – here<\/a> and here<\/a>. I cannot vouch for these sites, politically – I did browse through them in a cursory way to make sure I didn’t see any pictures of Che, haha, to make sure I wasn’t sending you all to some “whoo-hoo, yay for Communism” site – but it’s hard to tell at times. Click through the links if you’re interested in learning more.<\/p>\n

The Russian Revolution is, along with Cary Grant and the early career of Ralph Macchio, one of my enduring fascinations.<\/p>\n

Many reasons why.<\/p>\n

First of all: I love politics and history – and whatever the outcome, you would be hard pressed to find a more important moment of political upheaval in the entire 20th century than the Russian Revolution. It changed the world.<\/p>\n

Second of all: because it turns out that it was SUCH a bad idea. Communism is SUCH a bad idea. I read the original works of all those dudes – and what their PLAN actually is … I mean, I read all their grand schemes and I literally roll my eyes. Utopianism. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: any time some politician starts talking to you about Utopia, grab your loved ones and run for the hills. Make sure you are heavily armed. Utopianism is one step away from totalitarianism. In order to actually achieve any kind of Utopia, the individual must be ground to powder. There can be no individuals in a Utopia. But …. er … no matter what you do, you cannot get rid of the individual. Totalitarian states don’t care that their very IDEAS are illogical. They just want absolute power.<\/p>\n

Thirdly: I am fascinated in the Russian Revolution because of the world-wide repercussions of it – and also because I vividly remember the entire edifice cracking apart in the late 80s. I couldn’t believe it. I am in that generation that still grew up being afraid of Russia. We were the last generation to grow up with that fear. We have OTHER fears now – but not that one. I grew up during the dying gasps of the Cold War. So – to learn about the BEGINNINGS of such a political movement – something that would be entrenched for the better part of a century – has always been important to me.<\/p>\n

And lastly, and this is where I get a little hoo-hah new age-y: For whatever reason: cults will ALWAYS fascinate me. Any kind of mind-control, or brainwashing … any attempt to erase the individual’s sense of agency … It doesn’t matter if it’s Patty Hearst being kidnapped or what is being taught in the madrassahs of Pakistan – it’s an attempt at mind control. And that stuff just GETS to me.<\/p>\n

There’s something in the Russian Revolution – the early heady days (I know that’s such a cliche – but it’s a perfect way to put it) of the Bolshevik takeover – something in their Utopian talk, their twinkly assurance that they could re-make the world, their convoluted reasoning – and – just the LANGUAGE itself -how the Communists used language – all of that points to a level of mind control – the beginnings of it – A very ominous thing. Imposing a mindset, a correct way of thinking, on a country of millions.<\/p>\n

I’ve read John Reed’s 10 Days That Shook the World<\/a>\"\"<\/i>, and it’s a brilliant piece of propaganda – one of the best. It is, of course, propaganda – and you can argue that it’s a dangerous piece of work, whatever – that argument bores me, frankly. I want to read anything I can get my hands on – and that is a first-hand account of the October Revolution. He was the one who “sold” the Revolution to the outside world. Whatever you think of his beliefs (and again – I find myself rolling my eyes when I read it – the enthusiasm! The belief that the whole world would rise up in a red wave! Etc.) – the dude can write. Don’t bitch about me about what I should or should not read. That’s another form of totalitarianism. I recognize Reed’s work as propaganda for the cause. I read it anyway. So don’t foam at the mouth, mkay? I love first-person accounts of any historical event – biased or no. I like to feel like I am THERE.<\/p>\n

But back to the mind-control thing: Reed puts a lot of the communiques from the leaders of the Revolution into the book. He prints their pamphlets, fliers, announcements – and all of it is in that LANGUAGE of Communism, that deadening blunted-edge language – with no poetry, no humanity in it. It is FROM a collective and it is TO a collective. You know what I’m talking about? Anyone who has read any of that stuff from Lenin or Trotsky will know what I am talking about. .I’m jumping around with this topic. Can’t help it. I get all pumped up when the Russian Revolution come up, and I don’t know where to begin.<\/p>\n

To control a population: you MUST control their language. You MUST control how they express themselves. You MUST show them the “correct” way to speak. There is only ONE meaning of the word “state”. There can only be ONE meaning of the word “freedom”. So the leaders of the Revolution set out immediately to co-opt the language. Watch any developing revolution anywhere in the world. And watch how they start <\/b>by controlling the language.<\/p>\n

George Orwell knew this, of course, and that’s where the whole Newspeak thing comes from, in 1984<\/a>\"\"<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I find it interesting, and horrifically ironic, that Lenin would say: “While the State exists there can be no freedom; when there is freedom there will be no State.”<\/p>\n

Look at that language. Also, look at the Utopianism. I am not convinced that any of these people truly believed in the Utopia – or some of them did – but I think most of it was just a big ol’ power grab, doctored up in political Newspeak language. Anyhoo. Lenin makes that statement – but then of course what happened in Russia? The State became EVERYTHING, and no, there was no freedom. The State was the religion.<\/p>\n

I refuse to just blame this on Stalin’s evil – although I do think he was evil – and missing whatever piece it is that makes most of us human. But I don’t think Stalin took an essentially good idea and made it bad and evil. I think it was a terrible idea to begin with.<\/p>\n

Again: anyone in power who talks about Utopias is NOT TO BE TRUSTED. They can’t WAIT to put you under the iron boot of the State. THAT’S Utopia.<\/p>\n

Okay. See what I mean? I can’t shut up.<\/p>\n

Check out the picture below – of junkers lounging around in the Winter Palace in the fall of 1917:<\/p>\n

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From John Reed’s Ten Days That Shook the World (Penguin Classics)<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – one of his descriptions of the events of Nov. 7, 1917<\/p>\n

By this time, in the light that streamed out of all the Winter Palace windows, I could see that the first two or three hundred men were Red Guards, with only a few scattered soldiers. Over the barricade of firewood we clambered, and leaping down inside gave a triumphant shout as we stumbled on a heap of rifles thrown down by the yunkers<\/i> who had stood there. On both sides of the main gateway the doors stood wide open, light streamed out, and from the huge pile came not the slightest sound.<\/p>\n

Carried along by the eager wave of men we were swept into the right hand entrance, opening into a great bare vaulted room, the cellar of the East wing, from which issued a maze of corridors and stair-cases. A number of huge packing cases stood about, and upon these the Red Guards and soldiers fell furiously, battering them open with the butts of their rifles, and pulling out carpets, curtains, linen, porcelain plates, glassware … One man went strutting around with a bronze clock perched on his shoulder; another found a plume of ostrich feathers which he stuck in his hat. The looting was just beginning when somebody cried, “Comrades! Don’t touch anything! Don’t take anything! This is the property of the People!” Immediately twenty voices were crying, “Stop! Put everything back! Don’t take anything! Property of the People!” Many hands dragged the spoilers down. Damask and tapestry were snatched from the arms of those who had them; two men took away the bronze clock. Roughly and hastily the things were crammed back in their cases, and self-appointed sentinels stood guard. It was all utterly spontaneous. Through corridors and up stair-cases the cry could be heard growing fainter and fainter in the distance, “Revolutionary discipline! Property of the People ….”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n