In the Shadow of Red October

of daylight, and that is expected

to take until at least Monday.

Now on BBC News:

It is time for "In the shadow of red

October".

It is 100 years since the Russian

Revolution. A seismic event for the

world. There is a quotation that

says "The October Revolution opened

a new era in world history." It was

the start of a great experiment. And

of Russia's bloodiest years.

We are giving lessons, most of them,

many are what you shouldn't do.

But

how is the revolution seen in Russia

today? Are their echoes of 1917 in

2017? I am Steve Rosenberg and I am

going on a journey across Russia to

find out how Russians view the

revolution. That came to be known as

"Red October".

My journey begins where the

revolution began at the Winter

Palace in Saint Petersburg. Soviet

cinema would betray it as Russia's

bastille moment. The people are led

by the Bolsheviks, storming the

palace and greeting the world's

first Communist state. The reality

was rather different. For a start,

many of the red guard

revolutionaries who had got into the

building that night had slipped in

through a back door which had not in

lock. There was no dramatic storming

of this palace. As for claims of a

mass uprising of workers, peasants

and shoulder -- soldiers, today that

might be referred to as fake news.

This was a coup, one party, the

Bolsheviks, had seized power in

Russia. The palace today is the

state Hermitage Museum. To mark the

centenary of the revolution they

have put on display a porter at,

previously hidden away. -- portrait.

This is Tsar Alexander II, Russian

revolutionaries at stud their

bayonets into his face when they ran

in. It was a sign of their hatred

for the old Russia. It is only a

painting just oil on canvas. But to

me it conveys the drama of 1917 so

powerfully. As if Russia is warning

the world of the damage revolution

can do.

We are giving lessons. Most

of them, many of them are what you

shouldn't do. But this is the

historical mission of Russia, we

protect the world from mistakes and

make, sometimes make elements take

them on ourselves.

The Bolsheviks

promised a very different kind of

world. And here was the perfect

symbol. Soon after the revolution,

an instrument was invented that used

a lecture magnetic waves. The father

of the revolution, flooding the

Lenin, was captivated. But the

theremin would also come to

symbolise the Russian Revolution.

During the terror of Josef Stalin,

the inventor was sent to the Gulag,

along with millions of innocent

Soviet citizens.

100 years on, St Petersburg is still

fall of the symbols of 1917. Like

Lenin. It is just that they mean

less to modern Russia. Today, this

St Petersburg children's choir is

more likely to sing John Lennon then

Vladimir Lenin. Two young Russians,

the USSR is distant history.

And the authorities appear to have

little interest in encouraging

interest in the Russian Revolution.

There are no commemorations here on

the scale of a French Bastille Day.

A coup in 1917 is not something the

Kremlin of 2017 want the public to

remember. When it comes to

interpreting 1917, the people in

power in Russia today are torn two

ways. In two directions. And here is

their dilemma. On the one hand, the

Russian Revolution produced the

soviet union, which by the Mayor

Putin has often praise. But on the

other hand, revolution, an armed

uprising against the government,

that's not the kind of example

Kremlin is keen to promote. --

Vladimir Putin. In Saint Petersburg

Park, hundreds of protesters have

gathered to demand free and fair

elections. When I talk to people

here, it becomes clear that no one

wants a repeat of 1917. Do you think

that Russia can see more revolutions

or more on rest?

I hope not, because

revolution is blood, revolution is

deaths, and I hope it will be just

honest elections, not revolution.

Never it should be violence in

anyways, from the people side, from

the government side, because come

on, if the 21st century, you don't

have to kill anybody to make

significant changes.

Their only

weapon is their voice. They are

counting "Russia without Putin",

and" root and is a thief". -- Putin.

It happens to be President Putin's

birthday. The riot police moved in

to stop them. St Petersburg is

Vladimir Putin's hometown and it is

clear the authorities are not going

to let this anti-government progress

-- protest spoil the President's

birthday party. These protesters are

not making a revolution, they are

making a point that government is

beholden to the people. It is a

faint echo of 1917. After the

revolution, Lennon moved at Russia's

capital from Saint Petersburg to

Moscow. It is my next stop. --

Lenin. The spectre of communism has

haunted Europe, Carl Marx wrote. In

this part, the ghost of Lenin is

haunting me. Wherever I look, he is

there. Lenin is the red star of this

show, it is like a freak show of

fallen idols. There are an estimated

14,000 statues of this man in the

Soviet Union, that means that

wherever you went in the USSR there

was perhaps at least one Lenin

thinking about you, taking care of

you or just watching you.

(SPEAKING IN RUSSIAN).

Close by,

there is a leading museum. -- Lenin

Museum. A Soviet shrine to the

Russian revolutionary. And look at

the wall here, there is a quotation

that says "The October revolution

opened a new era in world history."

And the signature? Lenin. But

communism did more than cast statues

of him. It preserved his body, and

put it on display. Lenin is more

alive than the living, declared one

Soviet slogan. But they have to

create a whole scientific Institute

to maintain the corpse. Over the

years, it has replaced some of

Lenin's skin and flesh with plastics

and other material. His mausoleum on

red Square was a place of pilgrimage

in the USSR. Vladimir Lenin quite

literally cult viewing. Vladimir

Lenin had not wanted this. Before

his death he expect a wish to be

buried alongside his mother in St

Petersburg. It is one of the ironies

of Russia's revolution, that the man

who led it, who waged war on the

Church, who once said that there can

be nothing more vulnerable than

religion, that this man, Lenin and

at the close thing coming is had to

God, put on display here in the

mausoleum and deified like a Soviet

saint. -- ended up the closest. 100

years after Lenin's revolution might

be the time to consign the mausoleum

to history and commit his body to

the ground.

I believe that he should

be buried, and not as some say

because he deserves a Christian

funeral, because he was not a

Christian, he was anti-Christian,

but simply because I believe that it

is a symbol of the revolution,

should find its appropriate place,

not in red Square.

Over our dead

body, says the Communist Party.

If Lenin is buried one day, this

man's services may be required. His

company decorated funeral

accessories, such as crucifixes and

cough and handles. There is an irony

to him being in the business of

religious figures. He shows me his

family tree. He is the great, great

grandnephew of Vladimir Lenin, the

Bolshevik who declared war on

religion.

Whether or not his body remains on

Red Square. To most Russians now,

Vladimir Lenin is little more than a

museum piece, a curiosity from a

lost world. I had eased to the

mountains. -- head east. It is the

morning service.

As orthodox prayer merges with the

sense of burning in incense, you can

almost do yourself being lifted

closer to God. -- feel. If there is

a place where heaven meets hell, it

is here. This is known of the Church

of the Blood. People were murdered

here. Tsar Nicklaus the second and

his family. In a church, they and

their most loyal servants were

executed. The Bolsheviks shot and

been -- stabbed them. It was a

brutal and to the last Tsar. Having

murdered the Tsar, they tried to

bury all memory of the monarchy. But

they failed. It took 60 years, but

eventually, deep in this forest, a

discovery was made. Found here were

what were believed to be the remains

of Emperor Nicholas II and his

family. In 1998, the government of

Russia confirmed the authenticity.

And Nicholas, his wife, their

children, and four staff, were laid

to rest. Later, more bones were

found in the same forests, believed

to be the missing son and daughter

of the Tsar. The church has not

recognised the remains, though, by

that made the changing.

-- but that

may. We have new technology. There

is a strong chance the church will

recognise the so-called remains as

the bones of the royal family.

Nicholas believed his right to rule

came directly from God. He was an

inflexible autocrat. Is instinct was

to crack down hard. The communists

labelled him Bloody Nicholas. Yet,

as it analyses the revolution again,

today's Russia strikes a different

note. Back at the church, they have

this song of him.

He was the captain

of a ship until the end of the

country.

At this school, they

embrace the traditions of Russia.

This is a lesson in Cossack singing

and dancing and sword spinning. And

they organise regular school trips

from here to the church to reinforce

the connection to Nicholas and the

imperial past of Russia. But what

about the future of Russia? I asked

the children would they like a new

Tsar?

I am sure that in previous times it

was good to have a tsar. But today,

it is difficult. Times have changed.

And we cannot speak about the

monarchy as it was earlier. But I

suppose that our president is a kind

of a man who governs the way the

tsar tried to govern. In a way. He

is a hero and a patriot.

Russians

are waking up to the history of

their country. They are not trying

to replicate the past, they are just

trying to remember it. It is time

for the final part of my journey. I

am off to the other end of Russia

seven time zones away from where my

trip began. This is the capital of

the Russian forest. Here are China

is closer than most of Russia. The

cradle of the revolution feels a

world away. But then again I am more

than 6000 kilometres east of Saint

Petersburg. This man lives here. He

and the Russian revolution have one

thing in common, they both are 100

years old. Born in 1917, he has

survived three famines. He has

fought in format wars. In his

lifetime, his country has

disappeared twice. -- four wars. .

First, tsarist Russia, and then

again. How do you survive that?

After the revolution, it would take

five years and a brutal civil war

before the Bolsheviks conquered the

Russian Far East. The decisive

battle is depicted here on this

giant panoramic painting. Soviet

mythology painted the reds as

triumphant heroes and the

anti-Communist white army deservedly

crushed. In songs and poems, in

paintings and propaganda, the

message was clear. The reds were on

the right side of history. But this

version of history is crumbling.

Just like the battle memorial to the

reds heroes here. And that is

because as Russia today interprets

its history in any view, the

official view of the past is

changing. And other changes,

communist heroes become fallen

idols. The tsar, a saint. And the

Russian revolution, a dark chapter

in the history of Russia. In this

museum open to the public they

display guns and bayonets unearthed

from the forest. They try not to

take sides, red or white. But not

everyone welcomes that.

Back in his flat, this man shows me

the commendation he got from Josef

Stalin. At the age of 100, his view

of history is unlikely to change.

For me, this has been a journey not

just across Russia, it has been a

journey into Russia's pass. -- past.

100 years after the revolution, I

feel that this is a country where

history is in flux, where the past

never stays the same. One thing I

have realised about Russia is that

the past year keeps changing right

under your feet, a bit like shifting

sands on the beach. And that is

confusing, it is disorienting, for

many people. One moment they are

being told that the revolution was

great, the next it turns out that it

wasn't that great after all. One day

religion is the opium of the people,

the next, it is the life and soul of

Russia. So often hear history is

written, interpreted, and shaped,

according to who was in power. In

Russia, it is not just the future

which is unpredictable, so was the

past.