Great October Revolution Day fades away for many Russians

Russian communists and their followers celebrate the 91^st anniversary of the Great October Revolution today with a march and a meeting on the Pushkin Square in Moscow’s center.

Photo: Great October Revolution Day fades away for many Russians

Great October Revolution Day fades away for many Russians

“This day, November 7, has always been and still remains a great holiday for us. Our prime goals are sovereignty of people, labor and the revival of the Unified state,” the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Gennady Zyuganov told Interfax.

Opinion polls say that the majority of Russians still consider November 7 a revolutionary holiday. However, most of the polled said that they were not going to celebrate it.

“October does not succumb to modern trends,” Zyuganov’s colleague, Ivan Melnikov, deputy chairman of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, told The Rossiiskaya Gazeta. “Time shows that it is a unique holiday. It has the global and the humane meaning. November 7 marked the beginning of a different life and a different epoch. Revolution gave Russia and the whole world a new country and, more importantly, a new attitude to man. An attitude to every human being as a personality having the right for a worthy life on a par with everyone else,” the official said.

One-third of Russians believe that November 7 is the day of the Great October Socialist Revolution. About 38 percent respondents expressed such an opinion during a poll conducted in 140 settlements in 42 different regions of the Russian Federation.

About 31 percent said that it was just an old holiday, which they used to celebrate for many years and which they would like to keep.

Eleven percent of the polled said that they consider this holiday as the day for national unity and reconciliation. Seven percent said that November 7 is a tragic day in Russia’s history.

The Day of October Revolution is a holiday presumably for pensioners and males over 55 years of age having secondary education and receiving the monthly income of less than 6,000 rubles ($230).

About 52 percent of the polled Russians said that they were not going to celebrate either the revolution or the reconciliation day.

Over 3,500 people are going to participate in the reconstruction of the historical parade, which took place on Moscow’s Red Square 67 years ago. Soldiers and servicemen used to depart to the front from the Red Square on November 7, 1941, when Nazi troops were attacking Moscow.

Moscow held a military parade on the Red Square on November 7, 1941, amid fierce fights with fascist troops. The parade was held to celebrate the 24^th anniversary of the Great October Revolution.