October is the final installment in Sergei Eisenstein’s historical-revolutionary film epic, which began with the films Strike (Stachka, 1924) and Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potemkin, 1925). The trilogy uses a new film language to portray the events of the revolution as a painful and unavoidable “tectonic shift” in history, and it does so without the support of traditional plotting, psychological insights, or individual characters. Today Eisenstein’s films can be understood as an ingenious and politically oriented mythologization of historical events, and also as a work of artistic discovery, a parable about the nature of power and social violence.

On 27 September a large-scale Soviet project on the history of every day life was launched. Maxim Gorky came up with an idea for Soviet writers and sympathizing foreigners to choose a random day in the life of the world and describe it. Newspaper publications, news stories, photos and letters were compiled in a book published in 1937. The experience was repeated 25 years later, but this time it was no “surprise” for the world.

In the Soviet Union, after the XX Party Congress, the doctrine governing historical memory and narratives of the past underwent substantial modification. Anna Pankratova, historian and author of a 1939 school textbook, conducted “outreach” in connection with these changes. In 1956, Pankratova appeared at public lectures for teachers and other “ideological front” workers, commenting on Khrushchev’s denunciation of the personality cult and talking about changes to (and the “tasks” of) historical study and research. But there was much about this new version of the past that her listeners didn’t understand, and audience members bombarded the lecturer with questions (“How do we interpret this…?”). Some of the most striking questions, passed to the lecturer as notes, are included below.

The LiveJournal community “Monuments to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin” features what is probably the most complete thematic catalog of photographs of monuments to Lenin currently available. The community’s creators intend “to collect ALL of the monuments to V. I. Lenin erected on the territory of the republics of the former USSR, and those located in countries in other countries around the world.” As of July 2009, information on 3500 items was already available. The collection is updated on an ongoing basis.

Jan Rachinsky, historian and representative of the human rights society Memorial, discusses the characteristics of the Russian culture of remembrance: much has been accomplished (Books of Memory of the Victims of Political Repression), but even more remains to be done (the Topography of Terror project).

The photos from the series published were taken in 1915-1916 a the Northern Front by a battalion doctor Alexander Zusmanovich. The photos are sorted  in three thematic parts: “Everyday life”, “Landscapes”, “Portraits”.

Alexander Zusmanovich was born in 1883 in Oddesa in the family of a doctor. In 1911 he graduated from the university and in 1912-1913 worked as a district doctor in Volynskaya and Moscow provinces. In 1913 he had a contractual work in Egypt.

On 19 February 1861 Emperor Alexander II signed the manifesto “On the graceful granting of serfs with the rights of free villagers”. The great reforms reached the stage of practical implementation. 150^th anniversary of the liberating act is a good occasion for the present-day Russian society to remember the lessons of the epoch of great reforms, a unique epoch in the history of Russia due to its profound, but peaceful modernization. All the more so that this reform was not duly understood and assessed even in the 20^th century, though it is in its context that that the events of the national history become clearer, as well as  the prospects and limitations of the modern reforms.

The period from the end of January till 23 February is the time of “manhood lessons” in many Russian schools taking place as part of the “month of military and patriotic campaign”, which in its turn is organized within the framework of the state program for “patriotic education of the RF citizens”. Lessons are carried out at the instruction of the Ministry of Education and Science, the same ministry has elaborated the learning materials. Patriotism is inseparably associated with “serving one's homeland”, as well as with brezhnev-like rhetoric on the war (the variant of the memory about the war, which was formed during the late Soviet period of Brezhnev's rule).

Irina Karatsuba, historian, has perused the recent teacher’s manual and the textbook for 11th-grade students ‘History of Russia. 1900–1945’, ed. Alexander Philippov, by Prosveshcheniye Publishers. She believes that the authors have heeded Ivan the Terrible’s order to his oprichnik judges: ‘Let your judgement be righteous, yet our folk shan’t be found guilty’.

On March 2nd, 2010, Nikita Sokolov, historian, presented a report titled ‘Justification of Violence in Russian History Textbooks. Violence and the Myths of Russian Modernization’ during the second part of the international conference ‘Democracy and Justice in Transitional Societies’. Here is a transcript.