Towards the light!

This is a piece of stained glass from the early days of the communist era in Russia. The slogan translates literally as "Towards the light" but can also be taken to mean "Towards the World"', and was clearly an exhortation to young people to carry the revolution onwards.

We seemed to spend yesterday exploring the legacy of the Romanovs. After a brief excursion to see the setting of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" today has been spent looking at the legacy left by the Bolsheviks.

We found this window in the Kirov Museum, which offers both a recreation of Sergei Kirov's apartment and a museum of Bolshevik/Communist party artefacts.

Kirov, a member of the intelligentsia, was one of the leading lights in the party, and was in charge of the Leningrad region of Russia (roughly a quarter of Russia at the time). When Lenin died leaving a power vacuum he was potentially one of those who could have inherited the leadership mantle. Instead, a disgruntled civil servant from Georgia by the name of Joseph Stalin was able to grab control of the reins of power.

Stalin realised that Kirov would be a potential threat whilst he remained in Leningrad and he tried to get Kirov relocated to Moscow, which had recently become the capital city. Kirov cannily found excuses to remain in Leningrad. On 1 December 1934 Kirov was assassinated as he left his apartment. Whilst there is no proof, historians seem happy to assume that it was at Stalin's command; certainly there then followed a series of bloody purges as Stalin found ways to dispose of the other former revolutionary leaders.

Yesterday and today's blips are connected by assassinations. When one considers Russian history, right up the present day, it is interesting to note that assassination appears to remain a very real risk for those that move in political circles.

There may be some politicians waking up in the UK on Friday this week that would wish that the option was open to them!