After Red October, Not a Lot Has Changed in Russia

 

On October 25, 1917, Vladimir Lenin ordered Bolshevik forces to attack the Winter Palace, the official home of Russia’s rulers, in Saint Petersburg.

The raid started the Bolshevik Revolution, also called the Red October revolution. It led to the ouster of Czar Nicholas II, and the creation of the Soviet¹ Union.

The Reuters news agency notes that Wednesday marks the 100th anniversary of the attack, based on Russia’s old calendar. But not a lot has changed over the past century, in terms of the Russian economy.

Renaissance² Capital is an investment bank specializing in the country. It says the Russias of 1917 and 2017 have more in common than might be expected.

For example, before the Red October revolution, about a third of Russian debt was held by foreigners. That is the same as the rate today.

Before 1917, foreigners earned dividend³ rates of five to eight percent from shares of Russian utility stock. The dividend rates from such shares are the same today.

One hundred years ago, Russia had less industry than major world powers. It was considered to have the same level of industrialization as Brazil and Mexico. That is generally true today.

Raw materials were Russia’s main exports before the 1917 revolution. It is still at the same two-thirds level a century later.

Finally, Russia was the world’s biggest exporter of grain back then. The investment bank estimates that from 2015 to 2017, Russia was again the world’s biggest exporter of grain.

This is not to say that nothing has changed.

More Russians now have the ability to read and write as compared to those living before the Soviet Union. And the country became more industrial during the Soviet years.

Charlie Robertson is an economist⁴ with Renaissance Capital. He told the Reuters news agency that the Soviet years stopped the development of a modern Russian economy.

In the first half of the 20th century, Russia was catching⁵ up to industrialized nations like Italy and Japan.

Robertson added, “If that progress could have been maintained … Russia would be more populous⁶, more wealthy and more democratic than it is today.”

I’m Anne Ball.

Words in This Story

old calendar - n. Russia, and the old Soviet republics, adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1918. But the Russian Orthodox Church continues to use the old Julian calendar.

dividend - n. an amount of profits pays to people who own stock

raw - adj. in a natural state

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 renaissance   

n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴

参考例句：

• The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
• The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。

3 dividend   

n.红利，股息；回报，效益

参考例句：

• The company was forced to pass its dividend.该公司被迫到期不分红。
• The first quarter dividend has been increased by nearly 4 per cent.第一季度的股息增长了近 4%。

4 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

5 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

6 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。