Where the Revolution Failed

The 1917 Bolshevik coup d’etat is arguably the most important event of our century. As historian Richard Pipes has written, “had there not been a Russian Revolution, there would very likely have been no National Socialism; probably no Second World War and no decolonization; and certainly no Cold War, which once dominated our lives.”

Yet, we can hardly do justice to such a momentous historical event between the covers of this magazine; that work needs to be left for historians like Pipes. So we decided to turn our attention, on the 80th anniversary of this event, to that which the Revolution sought to annihilate, but which has survived nonetheless.

Most deplorably, the Revolution took lives. It murdered, exiled and imprisoned millions of innocent souls, whose absence will forever be felt, like a gaping hole in the mind and spirit of Russia and our world.