The decision to carry on the tradition of celebrating the October Revolution Day was sound, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on Wednesday.
“We had 1917 in our history. It came to us from other territories. We lived in the Russian Empire, were part of it. A revolution took place, and we began to build the first socialist state together with the Russians and others. The goals were noble in 1917 (you probably do not study the period thoroughly but I did as a historian). Those were good goals: power to people, land to farmers, villains and oligarchs up against the wall. These things did happen but there were a lot of other good things,” state-run news agency BelTA quotes him.
According to him, preserving the holiday, the Belarusian authorities found the right ideology to explain its essence and goals. Moreover, Belarus never gave up on its past or destroyed monuments to Bolshevik leaders, as it happened in neighbouring Ukraine, Lukashenka stressed.
“We were also ready to topple the monuments, start decommunization and vetting processes – I stopped it. And we took advantage of it,” the Belarusian leader said.
In Belarus, November 7, the anniversary of the so-called October Revolution, is a public holiday. At the same time, the Belarusian authorities do not agree to officially commemorate Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repressions.
The Bolshevik coup began in St. Petersburg on November 7, 1917 (according to the Julian calendar, on October, 25).
