Dear friends,
I have been getting a lot of requests to express my views about the event which was officially known as the “Great October Socialist Revolution”. All over the Internet, various authors are pitching in, offering their views and insight about this event which changed the world 100 years ago. After pondering this issue I have decided to refrain from joining into this discussion and I will limit myself to the following short statement.
The “Great October Socialist Revolution” is the reason why I was born in Switzerland and not Russia. I understood that, in a primitive way, around the age of 5, in 1968 when the Soviet tanks entered Prague and I overheard adults commenting on that event. Ever since, with various degrees of intensity, of course, I have dedicated innumerable hours trying to understand what really had happened in Russia, why the Revolution had happened, and why I was born in exile. My quest felt like deep-cave speleology or maybe drilling the earth’s crust: I uncovered layer after layer after layer of lies, lies, lies and more lies. In fact, I discovered that almost everybody lied about what really had taken place. And everybody was also busy covering up their asses for their responsibility while pointing fingers everywhere else. It was quite depressing and sickening. I am about to turn 54, so I can estimate that I spent almost 50 years of my life trying to make sense of it all. And while I am still sure that there is a lot I don’t know, there are a few things I am 100% sure of and these things really don’t jibe at all with the public/academic “knowledge” in the West about the Revolution. This has nothing to do with Marxist versus Conservatives views and everything to do with the fact that all political parties and movements use the Revolution for their own, ideological purposes.
There is a community of interest worldwide to collude and to bury the true nature of the October Revolution. Everybody is lying: the Marxists, of course, but also the “democrats”, the Socialists and the monarchists. All all the key countries involved, Britain, the USA, Germany, France – they are all lying too. And the academics, historians and political authors. But most of all, the eyewitnesses are lying more than anybody else because the eyewitnesses have a huge personal stake into exculpating themselves (or their ideological camp) from the guilt for what happened. Alternatively, those who think that the October revolution was a grand and wonderful event all claim a key role in it because they want the credit.
Let me just give you one example of such a collusion:
Before there was October 1917 there was February 1917, a coup by the Russian “elites” against the Czar which brought down the Russian Empire. Yup, that’s right. The Bolsheviks never brought down the Empire, the Russian “elites” did. Needless to say, these “elites” proved breathtakingly incompetent, stupid and cowardly and the Bolsheviks basically seized power in what was basically a state without a government. Now watch this: the Russian elites tried to cover up their role in the destruction of Russia by blaming everything in the Bolsheviks while the Bolsheviks, who wanted the credit for their grand revolution, minimized the role of the Russian elites and claimed that their revolution had overthrown the old order. It’s all lies, of course, but the democrats and Bolsheviks de-facto colluded with each other to uphold the same fictional version of history. Okay, I oversimplified, grossly, to try to fit into one paragraph something which Alexander Solzhenitsyn eight volumes to describe (It took Ivan Solonevich only one volume entitled “The Great fraud of the February revolution“, but his explanations, while accurate, were also superficial). But the gist of it is true: the pre-revolutionary elites and the Bolsheviks have a vested interest in repeating the same lie. The hate each other, but they are still colluding together to cover up the truth.
Forgive me, but I have no interest in debating anybody about these events. Not only are they intensely painful for me, I just don’t have the time and energy to debunk every pseudo-truism about this event. In the West the publicly acceptable doxa about the October Revolution is so totally out of touch with reality that at this point in time any discussion of this event is useless. In Russia, things are only marginally better. For one thing, in Russia any discussion about the October Revolution has immediate modern implications, and that greatly complicates an honest investigation of these events. Furthermore, the October revolution also has immense religious implications which are categorically unacceptable to the official “state recognized” Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (itself a pure product of the Soviet era). Finally, a careful study of the October Revolution inevitably brings up the issue of nationalism and the role various ethnic groups, especially Jews, played in this event.
There is also this complicating factor: there are many today who consider themselves Marxists and for them the October Revolution is a sacred ideological founding myth. By that I mean that they have created in their own minds, but most sincerely, a very specific image of what October 1917 was all about and that they will be most reluctant (that’s putting it mildly) to let go of it. As I wrote in my article about “Stalinism“, “I do not believe that the “Reds” or the original Bolsheviks were Russian patriots at all, I believe that this is a total myth, however, I do believe that those who today believe in this myth are themselves sincere and real patriots. So while I don’t believe that it possible to find any common ground or “reconciliation” between the White and the Red principles, I do very much believe that there is a real opportunity for a joint stance of Russian patriots today against the real enemy of Russia: the AngloZionist Empire.” In other words, I don’t want to waste time arguing with my Marxists friends about “their” revolution. Once we defeat the Empire we will have time for that. But for right now, we have better things to spend our energy on.
Furthermore, consider this – there is one voice which is almost completely absent from all the lofty debates about the Bolshevik experiment: the voice of those who have been killed. In the millions. Entire social classes (and that’s *before* Stalin!). And when we hear from the victims of that experiment, we inevitably hear from people from the privileged elites, almost never from the masses of the Russian people (who were mostly farmers, peasants). And amongst all those who were sacrificed at the bloody altar of the Revolution I first and foremost would single out the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia lead by the Royal Martyrs and the confessors of the Catacomb Church. Their voice is almost never heard today and it has been replaced by the voices of those who were, and still are, in full spiritual communion with the satanic forces which murdered these confessors. This truly is the “the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand)” (Matt. 24:15).
Icon of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia
Finally, and no offense to my agnostic friends, I have come to the conclusion that it is absolutely impossible for a non-religious person to understand the Bolshevik phenomenon. I don’t even want to argue this as I know that most readers will completely reject this thesis. Fine. I am stating my personal conclusion, not trying to convince anybody.
Icon of Saint Joseph or Petrograd, founder of the Russian Orthodox Catacomb Church
Photo of Saint Joseph or Petrograd,
For all these reasons I won’t participate in the current discussion about the Revolution. In fact, I won’t even allow comments beelow. I don’t ask you to agree with any of that, but I do ask you to respect my decision.
When asked about was asked about the impact of the French Revolution, the Chinese premier, Zhou Enlai, reportedly replied “it is too soon to say” (there is some controversy about this reply, but nevermind that). I would argue that it is also “too soon to say” how history will view the “Great October Socialist Revolution”: as a grand experiment in freedom or as a satanic bloodbath. I, of course, fully agree with the latter. That is a personal conclusion of mine which I submit to you in response to many emails, but not something I expect anyone to agree with. I am in the minority and I know it. Frankly, I care a very little about any majorities and I care a great deal about the New Martyrs of Russia. As long as I remain faithful to them and to Christ, the rest is of no importance to me.
That’s all I wanted to say. Please do not ask me to come back to this topic. As I said, this is very painful and sacred topic for me. And, as mentioned, I am not opening comments below as I see any discussion of this topic as totally pointless if not disrespectful towards the millions of murdered Russian people.
The Saker
PS: I leave you with this symbolic representation of Russia today (see here for context)
The Legend of the City of Kitezh by Ilia Glazunov
