Orenburg state university

October is a torch over the abyss

On October 24 N.K. Krupskaya Orenburg Regional Library held a public lecture “The Revolution 1917 and the Orenburg region”. It was given by Dmitry Safonov, a scientist, historian, professor from the OSU Department of History. The historian has also presented his monograph “The Torch over the Abyss: Revolution 1917 and the Civil War in Southeastern European Russia”.

Representatives of the Legislative Assembly and the Orenburg Government, archival, library, and museum specialists , history and social studies teachers from high schools, universities and colleges got the invitation to attend the lecture and presentation.

Dmitry Safonov began his speech by citing a historical document — the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee adopted in 1977 to mark the 60^th anniversary of the Russian Revolution: “The October victory is the main event of the twentieth century that drastically changed the course of mankind development”. According to the historian, the statemnet is entirely true, even now and even if one does not share predecessors’ ideological illusions. Dmitry Safonov highlighted the fact that the revolution was not a single event — it consisted of local events, in particular of those that had taken place in the Orenburg region and to which he devoted his monograph.

In his lecture Dmitry Safonov gave a brief sketch of the region’s history which contradicted the Soviet postulates that the revolution had been centralized and all communists in the provinces pursued one course of action.

According to the historian, the majority of the region's population wanted neither the Revolution, nor a fratricidal war.

The culmination of the event was the handover of the monograph to N.K. Krupskaya Orenburg Regional Library, to the libraries of the top regional universities, the seminary, the Governor's Lyceum, the Orenburg Presidential Cadet School, the Cadet Boarding School, etc.