The Russian Revolution is probably one of the most important events in contemporary world history. This article is an attempt to mark the centenary of the end of the revolution by setting the record straight. It aims to describe a lived experience of mass democracy and popular revolt that “shook the world”; to show that it was the collective action of millions of ordinary men and women that powered the whole historical process between 1905 and 1921. The revolution will be analyzed based on film director Sergei Eisenstein’s propaganda films, which was produced in the years shortly after the end of the event in 1921. Was the revolution an attempt to show a new generation of people eager for change that “another” world is indeed possible? Does it all depend on what the people, rising from its slumber, choose to do? And was the Russian revolution in these sixteen years an “explosion” of democracy, equality and peace because of the activity from the lower society classes?
