To the Democracy

By Maxim Gorky Novaya Zhizn, No. 174 November 20, 1917 The socialist ministers released by Lenin and Trotsky from the Peter and Paul Fortress went home, leaving their colleagues M. V. Bernatsky, A. I. Konovalov, M. I. Tereshchenko, and others in the hands of people who have no conception of the freedom of the individual […]

“All Power to the Soviets!”

Ninety years ago the Bolsheviks took power.  Or, really it was given to them.  The Bolsheviks hardly took nothing that the masses in Petrograd had been trying to give them since July.  The antiwar protests against the Provisional Government’s military offensive became bloody, Lenin went into hiding, the Bolsheviks went underground.  The masses threw the […]

Three Hundred and Fifty

350.  That’s the number of foreign election observers Russia plans on having monitor the Duma elections in December.  350 is about 700 observers less than than elections four years ago.  The reason was simple explained Central Elections Commissioner Vladimir Churov.  Having observers at all 95,000 of Russia polling stations would amount to foreign interference.  “Tell […]

Intra-Class Warfare

What is going on between the siloviki and what does it means for Putin and post-Putin Russia? It’s old news by now but a quick recap of the story is necessary. The siloviki’s infighting became public in early October when FSB agents arrested the head of Russia’s Federal Narcotics Control Service (FSKN), Lieutenant-General Alexander Bulbov […]