It is the 100th anniversary of the communists seizing power in Russia.
It started with Lenin promising “Peace, Land & Bread”, then, 20,000,000 state inflicted deaths later, collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions.
Meanwhile our own left wing standard bearers in the current crypto-communist Labour party are celebrating the anniversary at events organised by the ‘Russian Revolution Centenary Committee’: Recent communist party member, Andrew Murray, Unite’s Chief of Staff, who worked in the Labour leader’s office during the election, will deliver a speech at a London conference convened by the committee. Other figures close to Corbyn set to speak include ASLEF hardliner Tosh McDonald, Richard Leonard, MSP, Labour’s spokesperson on the economy in the Scottish Parliament, will also speak.
The ‘Russian Revolution Centenary Committee’ said:
“A range of bodies have come together to commemorate this historic event which continues to be an inspiration to millions of people today.”
Meanwhile, Labour clubs up and down the country have been gripped by an outbreak of red fever. Whitstable Labour called the Russian Revolution “a watershed event in the struggle”:
A Carlisle Labour event, “commemorating 100 years of the Russian Revolution”, was publicised online by Momentum:
Top Corbynista Paul Mason this week called the Russian Revolution a “beacon to the rest of humanity … I will be among those celebrating”

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

We simply don't understand in the west that Russia was a mediaeval society its people bonded slaves.

The Russian people never got the freedom and justice they deserved but at least they made a good stab at it and overthrew centuries of slavery.

'Ten days that shook the world' is the most compelling event of the last century IMO.

Slavery? How about this on slave ships from Conquest's 'Kolyma: The Arctic Death Camps': "In that immense, cavernous, murky hold were crammed more than 2000 women. From the floor to the ceiling, as in a gigantic poultry farm, they were cooped up in open cages, five of them in each nine-foot-square space. The floor was covered with more women. Because of the heat and humidity, most of them were only scantily dressed;some had even stripped down to nothing. The lack of washing facilities and the relentless heat had covered their bodies with ugly red spots, boils, and blisters. The majority were suffering from some form of skin disease or other, apart from stomach ailments and dysentery.
At the bottom of the stairway we had just climbed down stood a giant cask, on the edges of which, in full view of the soldiers standing on guard above, women were perched like birds, and in the most incredible positions. There was no shame, no prudery, as they crouched there to urinate or to empty their bowels. One had the impression that they were some half-human, half-bird creatures which belonged to a different world and a different age."

Edited by hedgehog50 (08 Nov 2017 9.50am)

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

The fiasco of the Russian military in the first world war probably did more to engender the end of Tsarist Russia and pave the way to the revolution than anything else.

The crimes of the civil war (between the reds and the whites were brutal, on both sides - but what followed the success of the Bolshevik side, remains among the worst crimes against humanity.

The moment that the Bolsheviks moved against a democratically elected government, by force of arms, was the point at which it lost all validity as a force of the people, being those who would use force on the people.

The crimes committed by Lenin, Trotsky and ultimately Stalin are of course unforgivable. Any state that kills its own people as a means of control is despotic and deserves to be remembered as such.

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
[Link]

What you say is correct. But we should also remember that they implemented marxist ideas on running their economy, the abolition of capitalism and the state running industries and services, collective farms etc, resulting in catastrophes like the famines and general shortages and low quality products, low standard of living.
Yet we have a Shadow Chancellor in McDonnell who still believes in these marxist ideas - along with many in the Labour party, and some on this forum.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

Genghis Khan was a conqueror by force. The wars led in his name killed some 40 million people (about 10% of the world’s population at the time)! But, as a new study showed, these bloody conquests helped the environment – removing nearly 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. So. Not all bad then.