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Communists mark October Revolution anniversary with flower-laying ceremonies

Belarus’ opposition and pro-government Communist parties marked the 92nd anniversary of the October Revolution with flower-laying ceremonies at the Lenin statue on Minsk’s Independence Square on November 7.

Around 40 members of the opposition Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC) took part in the ceremony.

“It is 92 years since Lenin and his comrades staged the Great October Socialist Revolution,” BPC leader Syarhey Kalyakin said at the ceremony. “A coup d’etat took place. But it was staged in the interest of a majority of people.”

The revolution was marred by “certain mistakes,” but it helped secure “many positive achievements that workers have been using for many years,” Mr. Kalyakin said.

The politician stressed that it had been the revolution that had helped Belarus get its statehood.

Representatives of the pro-government Communist Party of Belarus also laid flowers at the statue on Saturday.

Meanwhile, members of Russia’s unregistered and now banned National Bolshevik Party laid flowers at the memorial to KGB founder Felix Dzerzhinsky located across the street from the building of the Committee for State Security (KGB) in Minsk.

An activist, Dzmitry Sinyak, described the revolution as a great progressive event that has changed the course of the humankind’s history.

The revolution “saved the country, Russia, from a disaster,” he stressed. “The revolution has not only resulted into the collapse of the capitalist regime but also had an influence on art and science. Mayakovsky, Gagarin and the launch of the first satellite are the achievements of the great revolution.”

The activist said that Mr. Dzerzhinsky was a “great revolutionary” and a “statesman who led a group of Bolsheviks during the seizure of the post office.”

The ceremony lasted several minutes. Police were at the scene, videoing the ceremony but not interfering.

The group later marched to the Victory Square where it staged a rally.

An activist said that the unregistered party of Russian writer and politician Eduard Limonov has some 200 members in Belarus, with 50 of them Minsk residents. //BelaPAN