Bolshevik Revolution Day

Bolshevik Revolution Day

November 7

Bolshevik Revolution Day commemorates the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks overthrew the Russian government by seizing power in Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later named Leningrad, and in 1991, after the collapse of the Communist Party, renamed St. Petersburg). The coup took place on November 7 (October 25 on the Julian calendar) and through the years was celebrated as a national holiday marking the start of the Soviet regime. Celebrations were particularly lavish in Moscow, with grand military parades and fly-overs and the Soviet leadership reviewing the parade from atop the Lenin Mausoleum. In Leningrad, the Soviet Baltic fleet sailed up the Neva to drop anchor across from the Winter Palace.
All this ended in 1991. With the Soviet Union disintegrating, the state holiday was still in place, but marches and demonstrations were banned in Moscow. In the newly renamed St. Petersburg, Mayor Anatoly A. Sobchak attended Russian Orthodox services (formerly forbidden) with the Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov, son of a cousin of the last czar.

SOURCES:
AnnivHol-2000, p. 187
BkFest-1937, p. 286
NatlHolWrld-1968, p. 202

Celebration day: Nov 7