President Alyaksandr Lukashenka conveyed October Revolution Day greetings to the Belarusian nation. Belarus is the only post-Soviet country that officially celebrates it; November, 7 being a public holiday.
According to him, the autumn of 1917 dramatically changed the course of history, but the change wasfor the better as the Bolshevik coup ‘heralded a new era of human development based on the principles of social equality, justice and humanism’.
“The ideals of the revolution became the symbol of national revival of many peoples across the world, they inspired them to fight for freedom and equality,” the presidential press service quotes Lukashenka.
In his opinion, it is the October revolution that paved the way for the Belarusian state, and the Belarusians gained the legal right for self-determination and promotion of national culture.
“We preserved the best of the Soviet era and built a sovereign state. I am convinced that the memory of the heroic events and the suffering of the Belarusian people strengthens the spiritual bond between generations, instills pride of our people, consolidates the society and inspires people to work hard in the interests of the Motherland,” the message reads.
However, the October resulted in nullifying the achievements of the February Revolution and disbanding the Constituent Assembly. Later, the War Communism time came, the characteristics of which were executions without charge or trial and prodrazvyorstka ( confiscations of grain and other food products from peasants(. The civil war that broke out soon after the Bolshevik seizure of power took millions of lives.
By various estimates, up to 2 mln persons might have becom victims of the Red Terror during the first years of Soviet rule. In subsequent decades, Belarus faced forced collectivization and Stalinist repressions which rooted up the nationally oriented intelligentsia. For example, on the night of 29-30 October 1937, Stalin’s secret police (NKVD) killed more than 130 representatives of Belarusian national elite in the present-day KGB prison.
