HISTORY, "SUCH AS GOD GAVE IT TO US"

November 7 was once a major holiday in our country.

The Bolsheviks wrested power from the hands of the Provisional Government, promising much to the people of Russia. Time has shown that it caused only more havoc. The state was destroyed. The country was torn into dozens of quasi-states and territories, and plunged into the turmoil of the fratricidal Civil War.

Only thanks to an astonishing combination of ideological stubbornness and tactical flexibility, unprecedented toughness and the outward appeal of ideas, passionarity and incredible cynicism towards people the Bolsheviks were able both to retain power and, within a few years, to "rebuild" the Empire by 90%

In 1996, 7 November was declared "Day of Concord and Reconciliation". It was considered ridiculous to hold any celebrations on that day, because celebration implies the joy of victory of some over others. But in the Civil War there are and can be no winners. For everyone loses.

At the same time they chose 4 November as a unifying date. The day historically linked to the banishment of the Poles from Moscow in 1612 and to the popular overcoming of the Troubles in the Moscow state of the early XVII century.

The only problem was that the deeds of the people's militia, Minin and Pozharsky took place a long time ago, so it’s hard to expect lively emotional empathy around these fascinating, but rather distant in historical memory events.

On November 4, the President of Russia tied two symbolic layers of our history, two distempers, together, speaking in Sevastopol at the foot of the first "common" memorial to the victims of the Civil War in the post-Soviet space. Both the ones we overcame in the early 17th century, and the post-revolutionary Troubles, which we’ve been morally empathizing with to this day, "But there were periods when this unity - the unity of our people - was being aggravated by the hardest historical events and trials, such as the 1917 revolution and the resulting new, terrible "Troubles" - the Civil War.

The President called the memorial complex, "A sign that Russia remembers and loves all its loyal sons and daughters, no matter which side of the barricades they once came from, that our country has regained its historic unity".

Putin's speech, as well as the symbolic gesture itself - to celebrate November 4 here in Sevastopol, the place where the tragedy of the "Russian Exodus" took place and the organized phase of the Civil War in Russia ended - gives completely new and profound meanings to National Unity Day itself.
The meanings that are close, and understandable to everyone.

It’s not about the primitively understood "reconciliation" of the once warring sides. There have been neither "reds" nor "whites" for a very long time. They need neither our reconciliation nor our justification.

It’s about our inner reconciliation with our history.

It’s about the unity and continuity of Russia's entire thousand-year historical path. Russia, that has survived only thanks to the amazing ability of our people to overcome schism and unite in the most difficult moments.

It’s about our ability to draw the right conclusions and learn the right lessons from history.
For, as Pushkin said, arguing with Chaadayev, this is our history, "such as God gave it to us". We don’t and won’t have another one.

The dream of "changing it", of "having another one", would mean to "change your Fatherland".

Vladimir Medinsky,

Aide to the President of the Russian Federation

The head of state laid flowers at the memorial complex opened in April, dedicated
to the end of the Russian Civil War (1917-1922). © RIA Novosti / POOL

Putin called the civil war after the 1917 revolution "a new and terrible turmoil"
in the country's history. © RIA Novosti / POOL

He reminded that in 1920, steamboats departed from the Russian coast
to take those who were going into exile. © RIA Novosti / POOL

"Certainly most of them were patriots of Russia and sincerely loved it, as did
those who stayed to build a new country and, as they thought, a better life,"
the President added. © RIA Novosti / POOL

According to him, the monument in Sevastopol serves as a sign that Russia
"remembers and loves all its loyal sons and daughters, no matter what side
of the barricades they were on." © RIA Novosti / POOL

Putin noted that the country has regained its historical unity and one can
especially feel it in Sevastopol, in Crimea. © RIA Novosti / Mikhail Klimentiev