Abstract
This chapter seeks to highlight the significance and relevance of the October Revolution of 1917, in contemporary times by revisiting the historical events of that period. At a time when the ideological appeal of Marxism, Leninism and Communism appears to have been waned in the face of the forces of globalization and the hold of international capital, it is very pertinent to understand the enduring legacies of the Russian Revolution and its continued political and ideological significance for the contemporary world. The October Revolution had a deep-seated impact on the heralding of the welfare state in the West, the advent of Cold War politics in international relations and in the bringing to the fore the ‘nationality question’ in the anti-capitalist discourse. The contribution of the October Revolution in shaping the twentieth century national and international politics is immense. It is in this context that the chapter seeks to answer the question if the collapse of the communist rule in the Soviet Union should be understood as the end of ideology or history? And whether in the contemporary neoliberal political economy, revolutionary politics can pose as an alternative to transformative politics?
Revolutions are the festivals of the oppressed and the exploited. At no other time are the masses of the people in a position to come forward so actively as creators of a new social order.
—V. I. Lenin
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Nayak, P. (2021). Russian Revolution: Past in the Present. In: Chenoy, A.M., Upadhyay, A. (eds) Hundred Years of the Russian Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4785-4_4
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