Press release, 07.11.2014

On November 7, the anniversary of the October Coup of 1917, the YABLOKO party conducted a memory action paying tribute to those who tried to defend democratic Russia in 1917 – junkers and officers who conducted armed resistance to the Bolshevik coup of 1917. YABLOKO leader Sergei Mitrokhin also participated in the memorial action.

YABLOKO municipal deputy Grigory Semyonov conduced one-person picketing outside the monument to Gogol. He held the placard which said “the October Revolution is a crime against Russia”.

The authorities prohibited YABLOKO to conduct a mass action outside the monument to Gogol for the first time within five years. Though they allowed the Communist party to conduct a march and a rally in the centre of Moscow on that day.

YABLOKO leader claims that the Mayor’s office uses double standards and acts in accordance with their own political preferences not the law.

The activists decided to picket the monument to Gogol since it’s situated next to the house at Znamenka 10 where the headquarters of the armed resistance to the Bolsheviks were located in 1917. Sergei Mitrokhin, YABLOKO activists and a young man dressed as an officer put an interim memorial plaque with the words “The headquarters of the armed resistance to the Bolsheviks Coup in Moscow was situated here, in Alexandrovsky college, on October 27, 1917” on the wall of the building.

“The junkers and officers didn’t just defend Moscow from bandits, they defended democracy, the Constituent Assembly where the people of Russia were to decide their future. Almost 100 years have passed but the Russians haven’t been allowed to do it yet. So, such a crime took place in 1917 which resulted in th situation when a large number of people were destroyed.

Since 2010 YABLOKO has been holding memorial actions on this day paying tribute to cadets and officers fighting against Bolsheviks. We’ve proposed to make it a state tradition and immortalize the names of the fallen officers and cadets by a plaque. But the authorities ignore this proposal. Well, maybe they sympathize with Bolshevisks, usurpers of power and executioners of the Russians,” said YABLOKO leader.

The activists laid flowers to the building and announced a minute of silence.

Ten police officers followed the activists during the action but didn’t take any actions
against them.