Part of the problem is that 1917 really is in an anomalous position for 2017. Thirty years ago, it was taken as a given that it was a world-historical event that changed the human history. Now, not so much. The USSR is gone and Marxist-Leninism is a pretty dead-ended political philosophy. This makes discussions of its anniversary difficult as it does not have readily apparent relevance to the present.

A number of Russian/Soviet specialists have noted that centennial of the October Revolution is a pretty low-key event. The biggest celebration of 1917 in Russia was a naval review celebrating the hundredth year of the Soviet Navy. Unlike the centennial of 1914, there is little public discussion- aside from some of the usual hand-wringing editorials over the Lenin & company- and there are only a few books on the event. Most of the books that have appeared are overall not all that good; McMeekin's is being savaged in academic reviews, S. A. Smith's new book is not all that different than other books he's written prior, and Steinberg's recent book on experience of revolution is not pushing many boundaries. This is in contrast to the centennial of 1914's books, some of which like Clark's Sleepwalkers had an impact on the historiography on the origins of the war. Although it is too soon to tell, the smart money is the crop of 1917 centennial books will not make much of an intellectual wave.

In an insightful and sometimes tart LRB review essay, Sheila Fitzpatrick notes that 1917 just does not resonate with scholars as they it did in the 1970s and 80s. Writing of Smith, Fitzpatrick quips, "the only trouble with it – and with many of the works being published in this centenary year – is that it’s not clear what impelled him to write it, other than perhaps a publisher’s commission." Fitzpatrick's critique brings up a larger point that 1917 exists in a very peculiar place for historians. There are just not all that many scholars that are invested in it.

All of this makes a theme week somewhat difficult. In the meantime, there is this fun quiz which you can gauge which faction you would have ended up in a hundred years ago.

We don’t generally theme weeks based on historical anniversaries; we figure the anniversaries will create enough questions on their own. We selected this month’s theme weeks because November is Indigenous Peoples’ History Month.

Also of interest is the podcast we just had to mark the 100th year by /u/tenminutehistory, check it out https://askhistorians.libsyn.com/askhistorians-podcast-95-the-revolution-before-the-revolution-wdoug-priest