I'm a little too young to remember much of the Cold War, but the first big global news event I clearly recall is the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
I was six years old at the time and only vaguely understood the implications of the images I was seeing on television. However, with age comes wisdom, and I've gained an additional 36 years of life experience, which has allowed me to realize the profound importance of the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and Eastern European communism. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of global communism. It still exists in places like China, Cuba, and Venezuela, where it makes everyone (except for an elite few) equally impoverished and oppressed.
And it rears its ugly head from time to time in Western nations.
More than a century ago, Vladimir Lenin sparked the Russian Revolution that ushered in communism. It also led to the deaths of tens of millions of people from government violence, famine, and war. Modern communists, protected by the wealth and liberties afforded them in a capitalist society, believe today's grim anniversary is something to celebrate.
108 years ago today, the Russian revolution changed the world!
— Fiona Lali (@fiona_lali) November 7, 2025
Lenin and the Bolsheviks achieved the IMPOSSIBLE and the ruling class have never forgiven them.
YOU SHOULD BE A COMMUNIST. pic.twitter.com/pc6xg3RHok
It is not. But it is something we should remember. As I wrote the other day, the human costs of the Russian Revolution were large:
In Russia, the communists took over in 1917 after deposing and later executing Tzar Nicholas II and his family. From 1917 to 1922, the Russian Civil War and subsequent Red Terror killed at least seven million people (some estimates are as high as 12 million). In 1921, the communists stole grain from rural farmers to feed the cities and the Volga Famine became the deadliest in European history at the time, killing at least five million. In the 1930s, Russia saw another famine that killed an additional three to five million people. The Great Purge in 1936 also ended the lives of at least two million Russians.
These numbers don't include those who were killed for fighting back against the communists, or the "crimes" of dissenting or speaking out against the various totalitarian regimes.
Even The Moscow Times said the Bolshevik Revolution damaged Russia's future prosperity:
It’s no surprise we think the 1917 Bolshevik revolution was bad for Russia. Which other major economy suffered five massive declines in industrial or agricultural output in the 20th century? That’s the result of two prolonged invasions, a civil war, two famines plus the collapse of all trading links and an economic system.
Without the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, Russia might have suffered just three or even fewer disasters, like China or Germany. It might have become considerably more prosperous and populous.
In our opinion, these disasters are why Russia lost the chance to converge its per-capita GDP and democracy score with Italy or Spain. Instead, Russia’s obvious peer is again Mexico and pre-1917 data look very familiar.
...
Communism took away Russia’s chance to converge with richer European countries in the second half of the 20th century, but since the end of communism, Russia has already shown strong powers of recovery, agriculture and energy production. It again attracts interest from foreign investors.
What is needed now is structural reform that will allow Russia again to try and outpace Italy and Spain, helped by the adoption of the market economy married to the education bequest of the old Bolsheviks.
To put it bluntly, communists will stand on stacks of dead bodies if they believe it will help them achieve their political goals. Communists like Ms. Lali above, as I said, are privileged enough to be communists because the societies in which they live give them the economic and political freedom to do so. I wonder if Lali and her fellow commies truly understand the depravity and destruction their ideology brings about. Surely, they've read history books, right?
If they don't, shame on them for their ignorance. There is no excuse for being a communist, having seen the bloodshed and economic poverty it brings.
But I fear the reality is far more alarming: they see the death and ruination, and they like it. They're still profoundly ignorant, because history shows even true believers like them end up against the wall and in mass graves.
It seems in New York, Minneapolis, and elsewhere that socialists and commies (and they're two sides of the same coin) believe the time is ripe to recreate Lenin's movement from the early 20th century. They elected Zohran Mamdani in New York, almost elected Omar Fateh in Minneapolis (but managed to pack the city council with his DSA-backed supporters), and are putting up a slew of socialist Senate candidates across the nation.
"Real socialism hasn't been tried" is their excuse and reasoning, of course. But it has been tried. Repeatedly. It fails because the ideology itself is fundamentally, fatally flawed. Not because the people implementing it did things wrong.
It's a warning I've given to the Leftists in New York and elsewhere who repeatedly align themselves with socialists and Muslims. If you think you'll be a queer, non-binary Twitch streamer for the socialist cause, you're sorely mistaken. You will be forced to work six days a week, 12 hours a day, in a factory. If you're lucky. If the communist Muslims take over, you'll be prohibited from working (if you're a woman) or hurled from the nearest rooftop (if you're part of the LGBTQ alphabet soup).
So remember today, and what it did to Russia and the world. And continue opposing communism with every fiber of your being.
