Patriarch: commemorate Bolshevik revolution without celebrating it

The Bolshevik revolution of October 1917 — which helped usher in over seven decades of Communist rule in Russia — should be commemorated but not celebrated, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said recently to other church leaders.

“The thing is not to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the tragedy, but to remember this date consciously, accompanying it with deep reflections and sincere prayers, so that mistakes committed a hundred years ago should teach our nations not to make the same mistakes at the current stage of development,” said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, according to an Interfax report.