By Erick GarciaRevolution: a sudden, complete, or marked change in something. That was certainly the feeling in the air when the Russian revolt of 1917, otherwise known as The October Revolution, Red October, or The Bolshevik Revolution and the Yugoslavian Bulldozer Revolution of 2000 took place. Aside from being two extremely significant events in themselves, these two revolutions embody two important concepts: control and unity. Before the Russian revolt of 1917 occurred, there was already a lot of social unrest in Russia due to it being a very impoverished country during the early 1900’s. Under the reign of the royal Romanov monarchy, corruption in the Russian government was rampant, the Russian economy was suffering due to the investment of money in various wars, and many people were losing their faith in the Czar’s failing leadership. Thus, on November 6 and 7 (October 24 and 25 on the Julian calendar), the Bolshevik Revolution took place, otherwise known as The October Revolution of 1917. Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin along with a group of leftist revolutionaries overthrew the provisional government, calling for a Soviet government ruled by soldiers, peasants and workers as opposed to leaders from Russia’s bourgeois capitalist class. This would prove to be the first step in establishing the Soviet Union, and consequently, the first step in establishing a dictatorship that would last for sixty nine years. In 1998, college students got together in Belgrade, in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to form what is known as Otpor!, which in Serbian means “resistance.” They did this in order to call for the removal of Slodoban Milošević, who at the time was the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, because under his regime, new laws were being enacted that imposed political control over their universities and that harassed the independent media. It was announced on July 27, 2000 that early elections were going to be held on September 24, 2000, and Milošević was campaigning for reelection, even though he wouldn’t officially finish his term until the following year in June 2001. After this announcement, Otpor! united and formed the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, with Vojislav Koštunica as the chosen candidate to oppose Milošević. When the vote took place on September 24, 2000, it was reported that Koštunica had won over 50% of the votes, but Milošević refused to accept defeat. Because of his refusal, the revolution reached its peak on October 5, 2000 when between 500,000 and 1 million people took part in a mass rally in Belgrade. The Bulldozer Revolution obtained its namesake due to an engineering vehicle operator named Ljubisav Ɖokić (nicknamed Joe) taking his wheel loader (the Bulldozer Revolution has the name Bulldozer for convenience) and using it to charge a building in Belgrade where RST (Serbia’s public broadcaster and symbol of Milošević’s regime) was the tenant. Once Joe had broken through the police and security lines, the protesters swarmed the building and took over RST’s airwaves and quickly renamed it Novi RST (New RST), therefore serving as a symbol of their victory in taking down Milošević’s regime. Both of these revolutions are of monumental importance in our history. It’s worth nothing that these revolutions were similar in some ways and different in others. Both revolutions involved a group of people that fought for what they believed to be for the good of their country as a whole. The Bolsheviks fought to end the Romanov’s rule in order to save their country from poverty and from further destruction due to war and the people of Yugoslavia fought to establish a transparent democracy in their country. Additionally, both The Bolsheviks and The Yugoslavians fought their revolutions without spilling the blood of their enemies and were each. Where these two revolutions differ are their end results. While the Yugoslavians united to fight for the democracy and freedom of their country, the Bolsheviks fought for control of their country. While the Yugoslavians successfully and officially achieved democracy through their rebellion, and therefore, ended up fighting for the good of Yugoslavia, the Bolsheviks fought to overthrow an oppressive monarchy only to establish something that was equally as oppressive. Essentially, their hunger for power led them to replace one oppressive form of government with another. Their intentions were noble at the start of their revolution, but along the way they only started to think for themselves and not for the rest of their country, and this is what led to the start of the Soviet Union. The Yugoslavians who led Otpor! also fought against an oppressive regime that was rampant with corruption and also led a revolution that sought to overthrow that regime, but their intentions did not change throughout the course of their revolution. They did not seek dictatorship once they succeeded in their efforts to overthrow Milošević and his regime. Rather, they sought to replace Milošević with someone they believed not only better suited to carry out his position as President, but who would ultimately be representative of the people and not his own selfish interests. One who would represent democracy and unity instead of corruption. And it’s important to note that even after Koštunica replaced Milošević as President, Otpor! still existed to monitor the activities of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia until early September, 2004, when they eventually merged with the Democratic Party. Both of these revolutions are powerful reminders of what can be achieved when one fights for the right to be heard and to unify his or her people. And being that this October marks the centennial anniversary of The October Revolution and the 17th anniversary of the Bulldozer Revolution, let’s use these historical events to remind us of what we can achieve when we unite to fight to make our voices heard.
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