Red calendar day. The seventh day of November is a red day on the calendar. Why is the October Revolution celebrated in November?
But we won’t talk much about politics, maybe just a little...
Every schoolchild knew these words from Marshak’s poem:
"The Day of the Seventh of November -
Red calendar day.
Look out your window:
Everything on the street is red!”
The scarlet color really spread generously around - banners fluttered on the houses, flags fluttered in the hands of children and adults, and bows trembled on people’s clothes. On the facades there are slogans and photographs of the leaders of the USSR. The largest portrait is of Lenin. The leader looks at what is happening with calm wisdom.
Multi-colored balls fly up. Some bravura melodies replace others. And the mood, despite the weather - chilly, damp, excellent. It's a holiday!
Long before November 7th, people - there were no cell phones, no email! - sent each other regular postcards with congratulations and wishes by mail.
In general, we prepared for the holiday well in advance and thoroughly. It was a bit tight with food, but the so-called orders at work helped out - with smoked sausage, caviar, pickled cucumbers, sprats... All this was opened, cut and solemnly served on the table with herring and potatoes. Almost no one bakes this nowadays, but in the past almost every housewife delighted her family and guests with a hot, aromatic and, of course, tasty treat.
Olivier salad was prepared in many homes. The latter, by the way, was a kind of greeting on a revolutionary holiday from the pre-revolutionary era...
On one of the shelves of my library rests an old book, disheveled from frequent use, called “Conversations about Household Economy,” published more than half a century ago. This is a collection of morals and habits of a long-gone life. There are countless wishes in it, but I will give only one:
“For the October holidays, we advise you to invite your friends to dinner on November 7, after the end of the demonstration. Having taken a walk around the city, they will come to you in the best, liveliest mood, full of impressions, and most importantly - with a great appetite, which is especially pleasant for every hospitable hostess.”
However, festive feasts were held more often in the evening. Celebrations were an infrequent occurrence (except for November, May Day, New Year, March 8), but I wanted to see many acquaintances, friends, relatives...
Sorry, I got ahead of myself, so I’m in a hurry to go back.
The morning began with a demonstration. A multivocal crowd with banners and banners floated along the paving stones of Red Square to the cheerful marches. Announcer Kirillov said in a majestic voice: “Columns of workers from the Kuibyshev, Sverdlovsk, and Dzerzhinsky districts of the capital are coming. Collectives of Moscow enterprises fulfilled the annual plan two months ahead of schedule...”
Television cameras continually showed the leaders of the USSR standing on the podium of the Mausoleum. And they were in a wonderful mood.
Then it was time for the parade. The brass of the orchestra thundered, the soldiers paced, tanks and tractors rushed, spewing smoke, dragging multi-meter torsos of rockets. And again the announcer’s voice sounded triumphant: “This modern weapon is capable of detecting and destroying an aggressor anywhere in the world...”
And pride began to boil in my soul - we are the strongest!
That day on TV they showed the films “Lenin in October” (when Ilyich was wounded, it was a pity), “Man with a Gun”, “Communist”, “Blue Notebook” (how the leader hid in the summer of the seventeenth in Razliv), the play “Kremlin Chimes” , cartoon with the song: “What do you dream about, the cruiser Aurora at the hour when morning rises over the Neva?”
During the musical pauses, the songs “Varshavyanka”, “Boldly, comrades keep pace”, “Clouds rose above the city...”, “And Lenin is so young” were played. Famous people, old Bolsheviks (many were still alive), congratulated TV viewers on the October holiday. who talked about how they heard the Aurora's salvo, took the Winter Palace and how they built a new life...
Let's return to the festive table. Much has already been drunk and eaten. People drink tea with “Anniversary” cookies and “Bird’s Milk” cake. And it’s so good and warm in the soul that you want to sing. And many are playing their favorite melodies - some with a guitar, some with a button accordion or an accordion...
November 7 was a political holiday. But - only by external attributes - red flags, slogans, calls. For ordinary people, something else was important - to gather around the table, look at each other, and talk. Remember the past. To see how children grow up and grandchildren grow up. Be glad that the old people are still cheerful.
What's new, friends and comrades? Some people got five or ten extra rubles in their salary, others bought a dacha, others bought a cooperative apartment or a car (“Zhiguli”, “Zaporozhets”). And someone bought a lottery ticket and hopes...
The November holiday was our good habit. They were waiting for him. He was the starting point, the finish of some things and the start of others. Many large and small plans were checked against November. For the autumn holiday, they made commitments - that they would build, erect, and put into operation. But they not only promised, but also fulfilled...
Today, many probably woke up with the old feeling - anticipation of the holiday. Although it has long been gone - no scarlet banners, no thundering marches, no films about fiery revolutionaries.
But even without that, November 7 is a good day. The writers Dickens, Camus, and the artist Millyar were born. And in Tula, the first “shelter for the intoxicated” in Russia opened.
But many of us remember the old, 97-year-old revolutionary holiday. After all, he is a noticeable part of the era. And our life with you.
07.11. 2018. Wednesday.
This morning it was minus 4. And we slept with the window open. It had been chilly since four o'clock. This is nonsense with this dream. My husband and I like it to be cool in the bedroom, preferably under a very warm blanket, but keep it fresh. Children love it to be warm, they mumble that we turn off the gas at night or set it to low. Yes, in the morning it is always cool in the house, but this can be corrected in at least 10 minutes. In the morning, I usually turn on the heated floors and it immediately starts babbling. Well, I add a little gas.
But if we heat the house at night as usual, then we sleep with the window open. And it turns out that we heat the street at the same time. But all the best goes to the children, so for now it’s like that.
Today is the date, my husband and I recalled how during our school years on this day everyone was forced to go to the local square. Before this, all the girls at school made branches with flowers during labor lessons. White flowers were made from paper. Also according to the norm. Try to do fewer pieces per lesson! Then these flowers were attached to the branches using wire.
It was a completely day off from school and work. In the morning the whole school gathered on the school grounds. Each class was given a banner with Marxist-Leninist slogans. In front of each class walked a student - an excellent student or an excellent student in extreme cases, carrying a red flag, then two people walked with a “stretcher”. This is when something clever was written on a long canvas. And this canvas was attached to two sticks, which were carried on a stretch by two students. Then the whole class walked with these “bouquets” of white, mostly artificial flowers.
Before the whole school went to the local square in this composition, they rehearsed in the schoolyard. We walked in formation, shouting “Hurrayaaa” on command.
And from the first, consider it, September, this marching was introduced into the physical education program. Everyone trained. And try not to come to this parade. They’ll scold you on all the lines, a line will be specially collected the next day, they’ll call you with a list of “truants” and the director and the head teacher will reprimand you in such a way, in front of everyone, so that they’ll remember it for a long time! If it was due to illness and with a certificate, then there were no questions.
And then, if you didn’t come to the parade, they will hang you in the “Corner” as a disgrace, a truant and any other bad person.
And the parents walked in formation. Each from his own organization. There they were deprived of bonuses if they did not participate in the procession, there they were called to the carpet to the boss, and there they could also take away your party card! It’s both laughter and sin to remember it now!
In the morning everyone woke up, they had to have bows all over their heads, white aprons and off they went.
We'll practice in our schoolyard, then the whole school will stomp to the local square. And there is music and fun. Then the parade began. All the teams in the district walked in this formation, and when they passed the podium of the local leadership, they said a few words about each team, naturally good ones. And they just heard “Hurray.”
And when the schools were going on, they talked about the success of each one, sometimes the students who distinguished themselves were called by their last and first names. What a fucking pride it would be if your name was announced throughout the entire square!!!
Afterwards, everyone handed over posters, as soon as we pass, and you are completely free. If you want, go home, if you want, stay and walk around the square. But this mass character has always finished me off. It was usually cold that day; I was always freezing. We usually came to school for training and preparations at eight in the morning, and the parade on the square was always around 11. We were freed by about 12 and headed home quickly.
In the evening the table was always set, it was a holiday! Wow! Celebrated.
Years passed, even this holiday was renamed and moved to another day. This means that he was not as important as he was previously given. But in our town there are still some people stuck in the past. I just want to come up and say: “Man, don’t embarrass yourself, go home to your family.”
There was a teacher at my school who taught mathematics. True, she taught for one year, but the woman is very sincere, we communicated very well with her after school. I later became a teacher, so we communicated as colleagues. So, sometimes she kept complaining about her husband. All in the political struggle, communism, Leninism, tra-la-la, poplars! Time has already changed, but he is all his own. Ideas, the party, everything is bad, communists are fire!
He has been riding a bicycle every day for twenty years, with a bullhorn hanging on his chest and two flags attached to his back. And something is shouting out there, you can’t make it out. He drives through all the streets of the town, even into the impassable wilds. And my wife takes care of the entire household (I know this for sure) herself. Previously, he was in great demand for this type of activity. Either he was a member of some trade union movement, or he was a member of any party. That is, to lead, to organize all sorts of events of a political nature - that was exactly his thing.
And when the world and life changed, it turns out that you need to work there. And he really doesn’t know how to do anything. Although he is a teacher himself, he has not taught for a long time and has lost his qualifications. Yes, teaching is one thing, but being a member of trade unions and checking is another.
In a word, we open the windows in the morning, and in the dark this guy is riding a bike, the flags, like two feathers from an ostrich, you know where, are sticking out and shouting into a bullhorn, congratulating everyone on the Great October Revolution and everything in that spirit.
The man has grandchildren, age. He is the same age as my father, they know each other. I kept telling my dad that I would burn with shame if he rode around the city on a bike with flags and a bullhorn, congratulating everyone on the holidays. This is clearly ward number 6 crying for him.
Once we got into a fight with this guy, now I wouldn’t even start a conversation with him if I knew better. He just started to criticize one farmer, we personally visited him. Everything there is clean and tidy, the man runs a dairy farm, he made a road through the field so that he doesn’t get stuck up to his ears in mud in the spring and autumn. But I’ll tell you about this in a little more detail in another post.
And today we made some school memories. Whether it was good or bad is history. The party said “We must”, the Komsomol answered “I am free!”
Down with the State Duma, the servant of the Entente!
Down with the Provisional Government!
Down with capitalist ministers!
Down with the serf-owners!
Down with bloodsucking bankers!
Land and mineral resources, rivers and reservoirs, plants and factories belong to the People!
All Power to the Soviets of Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Deputies!
Councils at all levels and trade unions are the basis of People's Power!
101 years have passed since the Great October Revolution, when for the first time in the world, power in the Russian Empire passed into the hands of the working people, who built a multinational USSR and had an irreversible impact on socio-political, class relations throughout the world.
Much water has passed under the bridge since those revolutionary October days, but the slogans of the proletarian revolution of October 1917 today remain more relevant than ever for Russia, for Russian citizens thrown back as a result of the betrayal of the party elite of the CPSU, at the end of the 19th century, from the majestic USSR to the raw materials colony of Western imperialism.
As a result of the black betrayal and subsequent robbery of the country, the destruction of industry, science and the social system of development and improvement of public relations, our country paid in millions of human victims, poverty, social devastation and political depression of the masses.
Therefore, today, more than ever, we need and are close to the Ideas and Slogans of October 1917, and the experience of our heroic ancestors, who overthrew their eternal bloodsuckers - the landowners and capitalists.
Only by continuing the work of our great and heroic ancestors, creatively perceiving their historical experience, their achievements and mistakes, will we be able to once again raise our People's Socialist Motherland from the ruins!
It is our historical duty to our ancestors and our children to once again become a model and leader as a prosperous “State of the Working People” for the whole World!
***
Happy Great October Day!
Dear comrades!
The Great October Revolution began the countdown to its second century. A year ago, together with comrades from fraternal parties around the world, we celebrated the anniversary of this major event in world history.
We did everything to bring back the good memory of the revolution, so that for young communists and our supporters it would turn from the pages of history into a real experience. It has become the key to breaking out of the impasse of capitalism, an invaluable practice that will tell us how we can all re-enter the path of progress.
It was more difficult for our great predecessors, led by Lenin and Stalin. They were the first, they walked the road of courage, they built a socialist state. Their successes shocked the entire world and continue to be emulated today. We are obliged to take the best from the Soviet experience and turn it into the basis for building a renewed socialism in Russia, where the main values are free labor and justice, equality and friendship of peoples. And then, following our great predecessors, we will rightfully repeat the words of the “March of Enthusiasts”:
Should we stand still?
We are always right in our daring.
Our work is a matter of honor,
There is a matter of valor and a feat of glory.
I sincerely congratulate you on the 101st anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. We are the heirs of the Soviet people, and we will be able to breathe new life into their big and beautiful dream. Russia will be great and socialist!
I wish you good happiness and health, success and good spirits!
G.A. Zyuganov,
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
