Russia honours VI Lenin in Red Square parade

At the military parade held on the Red Square in Moscow on 9th May, 2008, many young soldiers and even ordinary Russians were seen to be carrying the portraits of Lenin (1870-1924) with pride. This shows that seventeen years after the disintegration of the ex-USSR, Russia and the people of Russia, including its youths, have come to a more balanced, nuanced and also mature assessment of the history of the October Revolution: Lenin was never a 'god' or 'satan', but certainly a great man who showed his people a way forward without resorting to the imageries of heaven or hell at a critical time when the old Russia was bedevilled by feudalist powers and institutions, very widespread illiteracy and superstition, economic backwardness and also absolute poverty, massive social dislocation consequent upon Tzarist Russia's involvement in the First World War as well as foreign interventions.

L' Internationale inspired Chinese Revolution