On November 7, 2017, Russian soldiers marched in a military
parade in Red Square in Moscow to honor the soldiers who had marched in a
military parade on November 7, 1941 before going to the front to defend the
city from invading Nazi troops. Commemoration of the centenary of the Russian
Revolution was relegated to side streets “in a pale shadow of grand Soviet
demonstrations on Red Square.”[1]
Even though Russian communists and likeminded activists from around the world
marched through central Moscow, the mood was subdued in spite of the milestone.
In Soviet times, November 7th was a major holiday
in the USSR, with demonstrations held in every major city and Red Square filled
with tanks and missile launchers, yet just decades after the collapse of the
Soviet Union November 7th was just another day. In 2005, President Vladimir
Putin cancelled the holiday and created a Unity Day instead to be on November 4th.
What for generations of Soviets had been a major holiday was suddenly just
another day, with even the centenary of the revolution being just a side-show.
Societal fixtures, even if trumpeted by governments, may seem permanent, yet
the artificiality in government-sanctioned holidays becomes readily apparent
once a regime-change has occurred.
It could even be said that governments are
themselves artificial rather than natural, given the innate instinct for
self-determination and freedom of movement evinced in our species. Governmental
social realities can be viewed as artificial, especially given the tendency of
humans in positions of authority to expand their control and that of their
respective institutions. The Soviet Union definitely suffered from such
artificial control; even the Russian participants marking the centenary of the
Russian Revolution preferred being able to attend by free choice instead of
being ordered to do so. As the French case confirms, even a well-intended
revolution can go dreadfully wrong; such is the nature of government, yet
without it human society would be a mess. Like governmental holidays,
government itself can nonetheless be viewed as artificial, and particular
regimes as inherently temporary.
[1] Ivan
Nechpurenko, “Communists
Mark Russian Revolution’s Centenary in Moscow,” The New York Times, November 7, 2017.
