Anniversary of February Revolution in St. Petersburg: ‘Neither kings nor presidents!’

The “October-100” Organizing Committee on the initiative of the United Communist Party (OKP) calls for a public action on March 8, 2017, dedicated to the centennial anniversary of the February Revolution. The initiators of the action recall that the Russian monarchy, bathed in blood and mud, which was a brake on the country’s development, was overturned in February. All strata of Russian society fought the autocracy, but the leading role in the revolution was played by the Petrograd workers and thousands of garrison soldiers who defected to the side of the people.

The choice of date for our action is not accidental. On this day 100 years ago – February 23 (March 8), 1917, following rallies devoted to International Working Women’s Day, mass strikes and demonstrations began to grow. Under the slogans “Peace!”, “Bread!”, and “Down with autocracy!” more than 120,000 people protested. There the first major clashes with the police occurred. The revolution began. The women of Petrograd played a special role in it.

The organizers of the Jubilee Campaign consider shameful the desire of “leading Russian political parties” to reduce the February revolution to a “conspiracy of Freemasons” and “the machinations of foreign puppeteers,” and hypocritical lamentations about the disempowerment of “holy martyr” Nicholas Romanov, emphasizing the destructive character of the revolution while silencing its achievements. At the same time, the February bourgeois-democratic revolution could not solve the most acute contradictions of the time. This only the Great October Socialist Revolution could do!

During the action, we intend to pay tribute and respect to the revolutionary heroes of February, and all fighters against the Russian autocracy.

Demands are as relevant today as 100 years ago for the preservation of the republican system, democratization of the political regime, expansion of civil liberties, the elimination of politically-motivated investigation, release of political prisoners, abolition of the regime of personal power. In contrast to the different varieties of the “opposition,” which have started the nominations for the role of “savior of the nation” [in the 2018 presidential election], the organizers of this action advocate the complete abolition of the presidency in Russia and a fundamental revision of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. We oppose attempts to impose on the people a false choice between Putin and Navalny, with others in the role of sparring partners. We stand for the development of the struggle of the working people themselves against capitalist barbarism, for social justice, for liberation from exploitation, for socialism!

We intend to celebrate the anniversary of the February revolution under the slogan, “Neither kings nor presidents, neither Putin nor Navalny! Power to the workers!”

We announce the start of preparations for our campaign and will soon notify the citizens and the city government of the forms of its implementation.

Coordinators of the “October-100” Organizing Committee:
V.A. Tyulkin (Russian United Labor Front)
K.E. Vasiliev (United Communist Party)

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*Translator’s note: Alexei Navalny is a pro-Western politician and capitalist who is being projected as the main candidate of the “democratic opposition” in the 2018 Russian presidential election.
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Translated by Greg Butterfield