1917

I was curious about how the 100th anniversary of the February and October 1917 revolutions would be treated in post-Communist Russia. I had read that Putin, concerned about any potential questioning his own control of the government, wasn't keen on encouraging revolutionary revisiting. There had been some demonstrations recently protesting the suppression of political opposition such as banning popular candidates by trumping up coruption convictions to prevent them from running against Putin's one party rule.
But the only demonstration I saw on this trip was at the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, a very nationalistic one urging a return to using the old flag of imperial Russia (black, yellow, white stripes), with orthodox priests officiating.

The State Museum of Political History was fascinating, housed in two merchant mansions taken over by the Bolsheviks after the February revolt replaced Nicholas II with a liberal social democracy. Lenin had his office in this building until temporarily fleeing to Finland July 1917.

The museum was dense with displays  from 2 centuries of revolutionary activity and reactionary attempts to retain power while trying to bring about partial reform, with only partial translations. Easily a semester's worth of history, without much content in English, and only the stamina for a 2 hour visit, made this challenging. But despite all this, it was an amazing museum experience. There was a lot about the vicious civil war that broke out after the Bolsheviks seized power in the October revolution, particularly about the peasant "Green" armies, fighting essentially for self-protection, caught between the extremism of the "Reds" and the loyalist "Whites." Peasants, the majority of the population, were subject to forced conscription by both sides, deemed "bandits" by the Bolsheviks if they resisted, and cruelly suppressed.

Too much content covering too many decades of propaganda, oppression and suffering. And of course there seemed to be only cautious commentary on recent history, after the 1991 overthrow of Communist rule.

Peasant weapons, note the crude sword at Top.