Why Putin is shy about celebrating the centenary of the Russian revolution

2017 is the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Radical political change is not something Putin wants to celebrate.

It remains unlikely that we will see prominent national commemorations highlighting 1917 for what it actually was – a short-lived, euphoric experiment in civil liberties, equal rights and democracy. Instead the official 'lesson' we seem destined to hear repeatedly in 2017 is that revolution fosters violence and instability – and should be avoided at all cost.

ZOiS: ZOiS Spotlight, No.2, March 2017: Russia’s tentative approach to the revolutionary year of 1917 http://en.zois-berlin.de/publications/zois-spotlight/zois-spotlight-22017/

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