Russian Ruminations on the Fourth

Factor this! American Independence Day finds me on the other side of the world - literally - visiting downtown Novosibirsk, Siberia. Destination: the imposing statute of comrade Lenin, still proudly standing before the city's theater and opera house. (I'm sure Comrade Lenin was very attentive to the opera...) My thoughts immediately turn to the meaning of revolution, and the fact that the American Revolution of 1776 is often compared to the French Revolution of 1789, both being products of the European Enlightenment. But my thoughts turn to a different assessment: that while America's Founders were fueled by Enlightenment ideals, they were not purely men of the Enlightenment. Nor were they in any sense "radicals." They believed in the rule of law patterned on a "republican" form of government. The mob they distrusted, so much so that they took pains to ensure that neither senators nor the president be directly elected, but indirectly selected via the states. The fact is, the American Revolution has more in common with England's Bloodless Revolution. The French Revolution, very much the product of "the mob," should be associated with the Russian Revolution of 1917. Comrade Lenin still stands there, looking out proudly, as though standing astride history itself. But his revolution brought only tyranny, oppression and untold misery, especially for "dissidents" and Russia's Jewish minority. How ironic, that many Jews originally supported Lenin's revolution, only to find their very identities crushed by it. Such is the maniacal power of "the mob"...