0:00:00 > 0:00:02of daylight, and that is expected to take until at least Monday.
0:00:02 > 0:00:03Now on BBC News:
0:00:03 > 0:00:11It is time for "In the shadow of red October".
0:00:11 > 0:00:19It is 100 years since the Russian Revolution. A seismic event for the
0:00:19 > 0:00:25world. There is a quotation that says "The October Revolution opened
0:00:25 > 0:00:31a new era in world history." It was the start of a great experiment. And
0:00:31 > 0:00:37of Russia's bloodiest years.
0:00:40 > 0:00:47We are giving lessons, most of them, many are what you shouldn't do.But
0:00:47 > 0:00:56how is the revolution seen in Russia today? Are their echoes of 1917 in
0:00:56 > 0:01:042017? I am Steve Rosenberg and I am going on a journey across Russia to
0:01:04 > 0:01:09find out how Russians view the revolution. That came to be known as
0:01:09 > 0:01:13"Red October".
0:01:25 > 0:01:31My journey begins where the revolution began at the Winter
0:01:31 > 0:01:38Palace in Saint Petersburg. Soviet cinema would betray it as Russia's
0:01:38 > 0:01:50bastille moment. The people are led by the Bolsheviks, storming the
0:01:50 > 0:01:54palace and greeting the world's first Communist state. The reality
0:01:54 > 0:01:59was rather different. For a start, many of the red guard
0:01:59 > 0:02:02revolutionaries who had got into the building that night had slipped in
0:02:02 > 0:02:06through a back door which had not in lock. There was no dramatic storming
0:02:06 > 0:02:11of this palace. As for claims of a mass uprising of workers, peasants
0:02:11 > 0:02:17and shoulder -- soldiers, today that might be referred to as fake news.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21This was a coup, one party, the Bolsheviks, had seized power in
0:02:21 > 0:02:27Russia. The palace today is the state Hermitage Museum. To mark the
0:02:27 > 0:02:30centenary of the revolution they have put on display a porter at,
0:02:30 > 0:02:37previously hidden away. -- portrait. This is Tsar Alexander II, Russian
0:02:37 > 0:02:40revolutionaries at stud their bayonets into his face when they ran
0:02:40 > 0:02:45in. It was a sign of their hatred for the old Russia. It is only a
0:02:45 > 0:02:50painting just oil on canvas. But to me it conveys the drama of 1917 so
0:02:50 > 0:02:55powerfully. As if Russia is warning the world of the damage revolution
0:02:55 > 0:03:03can do.We are giving lessons. Most of them, many of them are what you
0:03:03 > 0:03:07shouldn't do. But this is the historical mission of Russia, we
0:03:07 > 0:03:16protect the world from mistakes and make, sometimes make elements take
0:03:16 > 0:03:21them on ourselves.The Bolsheviks promised a very different kind of
0:03:21 > 0:03:36world. And here was the perfect symbol. Soon after the revolution,
0:03:36 > 0:03:45an instrument was invented that used a lecture magnetic waves. The father
0:03:45 > 0:03:51of the revolution, flooding the Lenin, was captivated. But the
0:03:51 > 0:03:55theremin would also come to symbolise the Russian Revolution.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59During the terror of Josef Stalin, the inventor was sent to the Gulag,
0:03:59 > 0:04:05along with millions of innocent Soviet citizens.
0:04:24 > 0:04:30100 years on, St Petersburg is still fall of the symbols of 1917. Like
0:04:30 > 0:04:46Lenin. It is just that they mean less to modern Russia. Today, this
0:04:46 > 0:04:52St Petersburg children's choir is more likely to sing John Lennon then
0:04:52 > 0:05:02Vladimir Lenin. Two young Russians, the USSR is distant history.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24And the authorities appear to have little interest in encouraging
0:05:24 > 0:05:29interest in the Russian Revolution. There are no commemorations here on
0:05:29 > 0:05:34the scale of a French Bastille Day. A coup in 1917 is not something the
0:05:34 > 0:05:41Kremlin of 2017 want the public to remember. When it comes to
0:05:41 > 0:05:45interpreting 1917, the people in power in Russia today are torn two
0:05:45 > 0:05:51ways. In two directions. And here is their dilemma. On the one hand, the
0:05:51 > 0:05:55Russian Revolution produced the soviet union, which by the Mayor
0:05:55 > 0:06:00Putin has often praise. But on the other hand, revolution, an armed
0:06:00 > 0:06:04uprising against the government, that's not the kind of example
0:06:04 > 0:06:10Kremlin is keen to promote. -- Vladimir Putin. In Saint Petersburg
0:06:10 > 0:06:13Park, hundreds of protesters have gathered to demand free and fair
0:06:13 > 0:06:18elections. When I talk to people here, it becomes clear that no one
0:06:18 > 0:06:24wants a repeat of 1917. Do you think that Russia can see more revolutions
0:06:24 > 0:06:30or more on rest?I hope not, because revolution is blood, revolution is
0:06:30 > 0:06:40deaths, and I hope it will be just honest elections, not revolution.
0:06:40 > 0:06:44Never it should be violence in anyways, from the people side, from
0:06:44 > 0:06:49the government side, because come on, if the 21st century, you don't
0:06:49 > 0:06:54have to kill anybody to make significant changes.Their only
0:06:54 > 0:07:00weapon is their voice. They are counting "Russia without Putin",
0:07:00 > 0:07:09and" root and is a thief". -- Putin. It happens to be President Putin's
0:07:09 > 0:07:16birthday. The riot police moved in to stop them. St Petersburg is
0:07:16 > 0:07:21Vladimir Putin's hometown and it is clear the authorities are not going
0:07:21 > 0:07:26to let this anti-government progress -- protest spoil the President's
0:07:26 > 0:07:33birthday party. These protesters are not making a revolution, they are
0:07:33 > 0:07:36making a point that government is beholden to the people. It is a
0:07:36 > 0:07:43faint echo of 1917. After the revolution, Lennon moved at Russia's
0:07:43 > 0:07:54capital from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. It is my next stop. --
0:07:54 > 0:08:03Lenin. The spectre of communism has haunted Europe, Carl Marx wrote. In
0:08:03 > 0:08:07this part, the ghost of Lenin is haunting me. Wherever I look, he is
0:08:07 > 0:08:13there. Lenin is the red star of this show, it is like a freak show of
0:08:13 > 0:08:19fallen idols. There are an estimated 14,000 statues of this man in the
0:08:19 > 0:08:24Soviet Union, that means that wherever you went in the USSR there
0:08:24 > 0:08:28was perhaps at least one Lenin thinking about you, taking care of
0:08:28 > 0:08:35you or just watching you.
0:08:41 > 0:08:50(SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN).Close by, there is a leading museum. -- Lenin
0:08:50 > 0:08:56Museum. A Soviet shrine to the Russian revolutionary. And look at
0:08:56 > 0:09:00the wall here, there is a quotation that says "The October revolution
0:09:00 > 0:09:09opened a new era in world history." And the signature? Lenin. But
0:09:09 > 0:09:16communism did more than cast statues of him. It preserved his body, and
0:09:16 > 0:09:25put it on display. Lenin is more alive than the living, declared one
0:09:25 > 0:09:32Soviet slogan. But they have to create a whole scientific Institute
0:09:32 > 0:09:36to maintain the corpse. Over the years, it has replaced some of
0:09:36 > 0:09:45Lenin's skin and flesh with plastics and other material. His mausoleum on
0:09:45 > 0:09:52red Square was a place of pilgrimage in the USSR. Vladimir Lenin quite
0:09:52 > 0:09:58literally cult viewing. Vladimir Lenin had not wanted this. Before
0:09:58 > 0:10:03his death he expect a wish to be buried alongside his mother in St
0:10:03 > 0:10:08Petersburg. It is one of the ironies of Russia's revolution, that the man
0:10:08 > 0:10:12who led it, who waged war on the Church, who once said that there can
0:10:12 > 0:10:17be nothing more vulnerable than religion, that this man, Lenin and
0:10:17 > 0:10:22at the close thing coming is had to God, put on display here in the
0:10:22 > 0:10:32mausoleum and deified like a Soviet saint. -- ended up the closest. 100
0:10:32 > 0:10:36years after Lenin's revolution might be the time to consign the mausoleum
0:10:36 > 0:10:39to history and commit his body to the ground.I believe that he should
0:10:39 > 0:10:45be buried, and not as some say because he deserves a Christian
0:10:45 > 0:10:50funeral, because he was not a Christian, he was anti-Christian,
0:10:50 > 0:10:57but simply because I believe that it is a symbol of the revolution,
0:10:57 > 0:11:03should find its appropriate place, not in red Square.Over our dead
0:11:03 > 0:11:07body, says the Communist Party.
0:11:11 > 0:11:20If Lenin is buried one day, this man's services may be required. His
0:11:20 > 0:11:22company decorated funeral accessories, such as crucifixes and
0:11:22 > 0:11:30cough and handles. There is an irony to him being in the business of
0:11:30 > 0:11:36religious figures. He shows me his family tree. He is the great, great
0:11:36 > 0:11:40grandnephew of Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik who declared war on
0:11:40 > 0:11:43religion.
0:12:09 > 0:12:16Whether or not his body remains on Red Square. To most Russians now,
0:12:16 > 0:12:23Vladimir Lenin is little more than a museum piece, a curiosity from a
0:12:23 > 0:12:34lost world. I had eased to the mountains. -- head east. It is the
0:12:34 > 0:12:39morning service.
0:12:41 > 0:12:53As orthodox prayer merges with the sense of burning in incense, you can
0:12:53 > 0:13:00almost do yourself being lifted closer to God. -- feel. If there is
0:13:00 > 0:13:08a place where heaven meets hell, it is here. This is known of the Church
0:13:08 > 0:13:15of the Blood. People were murdered here. Tsar Nicklaus the second and
0:13:15 > 0:13:21his family. In a church, they and their most loyal servants were
0:13:21 > 0:13:32executed. The Bolsheviks shot and been -- stabbed them. It was a
0:13:32 > 0:13:39brutal and to the last Tsar. Having murdered the Tsar, they tried to
0:13:39 > 0:13:44bury all memory of the monarchy. But they failed. It took 60 years, but
0:13:44 > 0:13:50eventually, deep in this forest, a discovery was made. Found here were
0:13:50 > 0:13:56what were believed to be the remains of Emperor Nicholas II and his
0:13:56 > 0:14:09family. In 1998, the government of Russia confirmed the authenticity.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12And Nicholas, his wife, their children, and four staff, were laid
0:14:12 > 0:14:17to rest. Later, more bones were found in the same forests, believed
0:14:17 > 0:14:22to be the missing son and daughter of the Tsar. The church has not
0:14:22 > 0:14:29recognised the remains, though, by that made the changing.-- but that
0:14:29 > 0:14:36may. We have new technology. There is a strong chance the church will
0:14:36 > 0:14:46recognise the so-called remains as the bones of the royal family.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Nicholas believed his right to rule came directly from God. He was an
0:14:50 > 0:14:59inflexible autocrat. Is instinct was to crack down hard. The communists
0:14:59 > 0:15:05labelled him Bloody Nicholas. Yet, as it analyses the revolution again,
0:15:05 > 0:15:11today's Russia strikes a different note. Back at the church, they have
0:15:11 > 0:15:23this song of him.He was the captain of a ship until the end of the
0:15:23 > 0:15:32country.At this school, they embrace the traditions of Russia.
0:15:32 > 0:15:39This is a lesson in Cossack singing and dancing and sword spinning. And
0:15:39 > 0:15:45they organise regular school trips from here to the church to reinforce
0:15:45 > 0:15:53the connection to Nicholas and the imperial past of Russia. But what
0:15:53 > 0:15:58about the future of Russia? I asked the children would they like a new
0:15:58 > 0:15:58Tsar?
0:16:15 > 0:16:24I am sure that in previous times it was good to have a tsar. But today,
0:16:24 > 0:16:29it is difficult. Times have changed. And we cannot speak about the
0:16:29 > 0:16:35monarchy as it was earlier. But I suppose that our president is a kind
0:16:35 > 0:16:43of a man who governs the way the tsar tried to govern. In a way. He
0:16:43 > 0:16:54is a hero and a patriot.Russians are waking up to the history of
0:16:54 > 0:16:57their country. They are not trying to replicate the past, they are just
0:16:57 > 0:17:03trying to remember it. It is time for the final part of my journey. I
0:17:03 > 0:17:10am off to the other end of Russia seven time zones away from where my
0:17:10 > 0:17:18trip began. This is the capital of the Russian forest. Here are China
0:17:18 > 0:17:24is closer than most of Russia. The cradle of the revolution feels a
0:17:24 > 0:17:30world away. But then again I am more than 6000 kilometres east of Saint
0:17:30 > 0:17:42Petersburg. This man lives here. He and the Russian revolution have one
0:17:42 > 0:17:48thing in common, they both are 100 years old. Born in 1917, he has
0:17:48 > 0:17:55survived three famines. He has fought in format wars. In his
0:17:55 > 0:18:00lifetime, his country has disappeared twice. -- four wars. .
0:18:00 > 0:18:13First, tsarist Russia, and then again. How do you survive that?
0:18:24 > 0:18:29After the revolution, it would take five years and a brutal civil war
0:18:29 > 0:18:42before the Bolsheviks conquered the Russian Far East. The decisive
0:18:42 > 0:18:47battle is depicted here on this giant panoramic painting. Soviet
0:18:47 > 0:18:53mythology painted the reds as triumphant heroes and the
0:18:53 > 0:19:00anti-Communist white army deservedly crushed. In songs and poems, in
0:19:00 > 0:19:06paintings and propaganda, the message was clear. The reds were on
0:19:06 > 0:19:12the right side of history. But this version of history is crumbling.
0:19:12 > 0:19:20Just like the battle memorial to the reds heroes here. And that is
0:19:20 > 0:19:25because as Russia today interprets its history in any view, the
0:19:25 > 0:19:28official view of the past is changing. And other changes,
0:19:28 > 0:19:40communist heroes become fallen idols. The tsar, a saint. And the
0:19:40 > 0:19:44Russian revolution, a dark chapter in the history of Russia. In this
0:19:44 > 0:19:52museum open to the public they display guns and bayonets unearthed
0:19:52 > 0:19:57from the forest. They try not to take sides, red or white. But not
0:19:57 > 0:20:00everyone welcomes that.
0:20:19 > 0:20:24Back in his flat, this man shows me the commendation he got from Josef
0:20:24 > 0:20:31Stalin. At the age of 100, his view of history is unlikely to change.
0:21:07 > 0:21:14For me, this has been a journey not just across Russia, it has been a
0:21:14 > 0:21:19journey into Russia's pass. -- past.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27100 years after the revolution, I feel that this is a country where
0:21:27 > 0:21:35history is in flux, where the past never stays the same. One thing I
0:21:35 > 0:21:41have realised about Russia is that the past year keeps changing right
0:21:41 > 0:21:47under your feet, a bit like shifting sands on the beach. And that is
0:21:47 > 0:21:51confusing, it is disorienting, for many people. One moment they are
0:21:51 > 0:21:55being told that the revolution was great, the next it turns out that it
0:21:55 > 0:22:00wasn't that great after all. One day religion is the opium of the people,
0:22:00 > 0:22:06the next, it is the life and soul of Russia. So often hear history is
0:22:06 > 0:22:11written, interpreted, and shaped, according to who was in power. In
0:22:11 > 0:22:18Russia, it is not just the future which is unpredictable, so was the
0:22:18 > 0:22:20past.