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Russia: TV archive unlocks myth of revolution
Scotsman.com ^ | 15 Apr 2004 | TIM CORNWELL

Posted on 04/18/2004 4:56:03 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe

IN OCTOBER 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, sailors in the port of Kronstadt formed the vanguard of the revolution. They overran the cruiser Aurora, bombarded the Winter Palace, stormed the building and handed it over to the Bolsheviks.

Four years later, 900 of those same sailors were executed by firing squad after they rose up against the Communists and the Red Army. Thousands of others were dispatched to the Gulag prison camps.

Now their story is to be used by the TV company WarkClements as the narrative spine of a two-part documentary promising to "unpack" the myths of the Russian revolution and the lethal battle for power that followed.

Storm in the East will argue that Russia should never have had a Socialist revolution in 1917, that the Bolsheviks were a fringe party, and that "the revolution was an exercise in capturing and maintaining power at all costs".

Alan Clements, the managing director of the company, described yesterday how it took two years to secure financing for a project he has wanted to do for 21 years, ever since he studied the subject at the University of Glasgow.

"It has been a long-haul putting together the funding, a labour of love," he said. "The thesis will be quite controversial, but at least thought- provoking.

"People tend to believe that Lenin was this cuddly guy and Stalin made it all bad. Historically there are a lot of people on the Scottish left with that view, certainly when I was still at university, and that can't be justified."

Lenin, who died in early 1924, founded the feared secret police, the Cheka, and authorised them to take the first brutal measures against Russian peasants in a foretaste of Stalinist horrors.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.scotsman.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: bolsheviks; communism; communists; oct17; october17; russia; russianrevolution; worldhistory
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1 posted on 04/18/2004 4:56:09 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe; Cincinatus' Wife; Dr. Marten; tallhappy
bump
2 posted on 04/18/2004 4:57:57 PM PDT by risk
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Maybe Ken Burns will produce it.

Not.
3 posted on 04/18/2004 4:59:28 PM PDT by js1138 (In a minute there is time, for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. J Forbes Kerry)
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To: js1138
Maybe Ken Burns will produce it.

Maybe he'll post the whole article.

Not.

FMCDH

4 posted on 04/18/2004 5:11:02 PM PDT by nothingnew (The pendulum is swinging and the Rats are in the pit!)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Lenin was every bit as blood thirsty as Stalin,
but perhaps not quite as ruthless and cunning, much to his
regret. His wife saw where Stalin was going but by then
Lenin was in no condition to do much about it.
As I remember he tried but on his death Stalin took all
his papers and that was the last of that.

Do they have a Ft. Marcy park in Moscow?
5 posted on 04/18/2004 5:23:13 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
ping for later
6 posted on 04/18/2004 5:23:59 PM PDT by scan59
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To: Tailgunner Joe
People tend to believe that Lenin was this cuddly guy and Stalin made it all bad.

Anyone who has read Solzhenitsyn knows better.

7 posted on 04/18/2004 5:28:02 PM PDT by VadeRetro (Faster than a speeding building! Able to leap tall bullets in a single bound!)
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To: tet68
Yes. Lenin apparently left a will that Stalin suppressed. One or more Robert Conquest books [The Great Terror, Harvest of Sorrow] mention this.
8 posted on 04/18/2004 5:30:42 PM PDT by VadeRetro (Faster than a speeding building! Able to leap tall bullets in a single bound!)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
I grew up listening to my grandfather's stories of the Russian revolution. They came in took everything the poor had while cheering "It's for the people." (As opposed to todays Marxist cheer "It's for the children".)Anyone who voiced any objection to having all his food and livestock taken was slaughtered on the spot.

I'm left wondering if the makers of this documentary are believers in Marx' doctine and just feel that the Russians just didn't implement it correctly.
9 posted on 04/18/2004 5:40:52 PM PDT by lizma
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10 posted on 04/18/2004 6:02:24 PM PDT by risk
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To: Tailgunner Joe
BUMP
11 posted on 04/18/2004 6:02:41 PM PDT by eleni121 (Preempt and Prevent---then Destroy)
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To: lizma; Cincinatus' Wife
ping to my #10 - still from Nikita Mikhalkov's award-winning Burnt by the Sun (Utomlyonnye solntsem) film, a very disturbing film about the cost of bad ideology taken to its logical ends.
12 posted on 04/18/2004 6:05:50 PM PDT by risk
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To: risk
That's a good film. I bought it and have watched it a couple of times. It's hard to take at the end. Never had anyone to discuss it with, and am not sure I understood all of it.
13 posted on 04/18/2004 6:16:32 PM PDT by Aliska
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To: Aliska
I see it is available on e-bay. I may bid on a copy. I will contact you after I view it, if I am successful.
14 posted on 04/18/2004 6:28:27 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: The_Media_never_lie
amazon.com has 20 new and used vhs from $8. That's a good price. Some slightly more up to quite a lot. buy.com has it on dvd for $25 something.

Maybe you can just rent it. Will look forward to hearing what you thought about it.

I need to track down Oblomov. I love Russian films. I also have Siberiade.

15 posted on 04/18/2004 6:39:45 PM PDT by Aliska
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To: Aliska
The story is finally coming out. Will we see this on PBS?
16 posted on 04/18/2004 6:49:28 PM PDT by Ciexyz
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To: Ciexyz
I have seen a lot of very damning stuff on Saddam on PBS. So I won't rule this out.
17 posted on 04/18/2004 6:56:46 PM PDT by justshutupandtakeit (America's Enemies foreign and domestic RATmedia agree: Bush must be destroyed.)
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To: Ciexyz
You mean the true background of the Russian Revolution? Or are you talking about Burnt by the Sun?

The revolution was a horror orchestrated by a small minority which, playing on societal discontent, amassed more power as it gathered momentum. It sounds somewhat like America today, the politics of hate and discontent, being played out before our eyes. A similar thing, actually an even worse thing, could happen here if the checks and balances give out. The groundwork has been carefully laid.

I don't know where things are going to be truthful.

18 posted on 04/18/2004 7:02:31 PM PDT by Aliska
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To: tet68
Do they have a Ft. Marcy park in Moscow?

I don't know. But I bet Hillery was there, in a "prior life".

19 posted on 04/18/2004 7:39:42 PM PDT by Mad_Tom_Rackham (Any day you wake up is a good day.)
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To: js1138; risk
Maybe Ken Burns will produce it.

That mad me laugh.

Thanks for the ping, risk.

20 posted on 04/18/2004 8:05:50 PM PDT by tallhappy (Juntos Podemos!)
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