The Inkling Volume 2

“ Four days that
shook my world ”
By Mr G Hean ey
It was a cold March in 2005 when I arrived at Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg,
Russia (the temperature was -15C!). As I approached passport control, I had a
sense of stepping back into the past. I had studied Russian history at university in
Ireland and knew all the places in this city as if I was a local. But now, the time
had come to visit it for myself. The Russian security lady at border control took
my passport, looked at it intensely, looked back at me, looked again at my
passport, looked back at me and finally added a stamp without even a “Dobro
pozhalovat' v Rossiyu” (welcome to Russia). My adventure had begun…
This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the communist revolution in
Russia. In actual fact, the year 1917 saw two revolutions (one in February and
one in October) but it is often the communist seizure of power in October 1917 by
Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks that draws the most attention. St Petersburg
was the centre of this communist takeover and I had been waiting many years to
actually make a visit (my wife thought I was joking when I suggested we visit for
our honeymoon…). The character, architecture and vibrancy of this city in 1917
had all the makings of a revolution. For some, St Petersburg was not even
Russian at all - it was a city based on Amsterdam in the Netherlands that leaned
more towards Europe than to Asia. But for the Bolsheviks, it was the perfect
breeding ground in which to bring their revolutionary zeal and slogans to the
fore.