Apropo of This

After I made my last post I found a few photos I used to have on my desktop of Russia during the 1917 Revolution, and some of other times. None of them are mine and all of them are most likely copyrighted, but when has communism ever been better than when ironically misused to justify redistributing other people's work? 

"Peace, bread, and illegally available capitalist western entertainment. Hell Yaahh, Mother-Rrrr, Peace & Love, I'mmm outttaaa heeere!!" - Lenin.

Russians stand in line in 1917 for bread, being watched over by Okhrana. I believe the photo was taken By Captain Donald C. Thompson, an American present in Russia during the revolution. So often people talk of popular revolution as having an ideological basis, but ideals are something only seriously talked of on a full stomach. 

WWI had severely impacted upon the image of the Tsar, who in a poor P.R. move had taken full control of an army fighting a damaging war in a severe winter, thus making himself directly blamable for any tragedies or individual loss of life, of which there were plenty during the period. Here sympathetic troops support banners bearing Bolshevik and Marxist slogans.

 And here troops open fire on protesters in Petrograd in 1917 during the July Days. The support of the army to the revolutionary cause was essential to success, and it could be argued that it was one of the driving factors of the revolution, perhaps more so than the grass roots proletariat cause. By the height of the February Revolution in 1917, around 54% of workers were on strike, whilst roughly 94% present of the army had mutinied. The mutinies were sometimes violent in nature, but about 95% were passive, with soldiers simply refusing to fire. By the end of the July Days, the number of loyal Tsarist companies, squadrons, and batteries left, numbered 11.

Soldiers and civilians mix almost imperceptibly during student protests in Petrograd. It is an example, taken in the context of the above images, of the duality of society, being both an individual, and part of a larger body, and the problems that arise when one must choose between the two.