Anticommunists Mark Bolshevik Centenary

On a cold night in Petrograd, just over one hundred years ago, a small group of Red Guards seized the Winter Palace and installed the world’s first communist government. The Bolshevik Revolution marked the beginning of a century in which adherents to communist ideology committed some of the worst and most widespread atrocities known to history.

On November 7-9, 2017, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation convened more than 1,000 anticommunists — including diplomats and Congress members, historians and dissidents, and champions of freedom and human rights — in Washington, DC, for the Victims of Communism Centennial Commemoration, solemnly marking the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.

In sum, we launched a bipartisan Victims of Communism Caucus in Congress, welcomed the President’s message declaring the first National Day Commemorating the Victims of Communism, premiered a documentary featuring six women who were political prisoners in Stalin’s Gulag, hosted a Russian Orthodox choir concert, and organized a two-day conference in the Library of Congress.

Our reflection culminated with a dinner on Nov. 9, in the main hall of Union Station. Economic historian Niall Ferguson delivered a keynote speech on communism and civilization.

We awarded Natan Sharansky, Israeli statesman and former Soviet political prisoner, and the Russian NGO Memorial Society, represented by their Executive Director Elena Zhemkova, the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom for their life-long commitments to freedom and democracy and opposition to communism and other forms of tyranny.

In his acceptance remarks, Sharansky said: “It is the desire of people to be free and to speak their minds freely, which is an unconventional weapon the free world has.”

President George W. Bush sent a video message thanking Sharansky and Memorial Society for their work, and reminded us all that “freedom is precious and cannot be taken for granted, that evil is real and we must confront it.”

Thank you to all those who joined us to mark this historic anniversary, and all those who were with us in spirit.