This text, located in the archive of P. E. Shegolev, one of the founders of the State Museum of the Revolution, is a leaflet authored by Vadim Bystryansky. A Bolshevik underground worker and historian, Bystryansky held several leading positions after the Bolshevik rise to power. Notably, he served as the director of the Leningrad Institute of Party History in the latter half of the 1930s. While the precise date of this text remains unknown, it reflects his perspective on the essence and mission of the Museum of the Revolution. The text exhibits clear Bolshevik ideology; however, it doesn’t dismiss the broader revolutionary movement pre-1917, instead establishing a connection with it.

The Museum of Revolution is a unique creation of the Russian Soviet State. Such an institution is impossible in any of the Western countries, for the governments in power there are “executive committees of the bourgeoisie,” in the words of the Communist Manifesto, and they fear revolution like fire. The ruling class of capitalist democracy in Europe has long ceased to be revolutionary – it has become reactionary, it looks not forward but backward, it strives to turn back the wheel of history. Only the proletariat, this only revolutionary class of modern society, having achieved power, was able to create a museum of revolution, for it won under the banner of permanent revolution, continuous renewal of all forms of social life, incessant revolutionary creativity.

The Museum of Revolution is a product of the greatest and last of revolutions, the socialist revolution. This is a revolution that leads to the elimination of class antagonism, and thereby of class struggle, which used to lead to the Civil War; a revolution that creates for liberated humanity the possibility of free development and harmonious forms that eliminate class struggle and revolutions.

The working class stands with both feet on the ground of revolution. It owes its victory to it. Bringing it to the end, the reorganization of society on the principles of communism will ensure the complete victory of its cause, – therefore it alone will erect such a monument to the revolution.

The Museum of Revolution is close to all working people, for it embodies the victory of Labor, it marks the triumph of the class whose life principle is labor. Therefore, it should first of all reflect the greatest of all revolutions, the revolution of the working class. The Museum of Revolution is therefore close to the masses because it is closely connected with the “current moment”, for the revolution is not over, for the revolution continues. With the inevitability of a natural process, it goes further and further in Russia, – being at the same time only the initial link in the chain of socialist uprisings of the proletariat.

The Museum of Revolution reflects a phase of social development that has not yet been completed, for the social revolution is a long process that will last for many years, perhaps decades. Our entire revolution should be reflected in its museum. It is the work of the masses themselves, therefore the museum can fruitfully develop its work only when it relies on the masses themselves, if it manages to arouse in them a deep and lively interest in its activities. Every participant in the revolution, everyone who contributed to its victory with his work, must bring his memories to the museum, – revolutionary relics, must take care that not a single particle is lost, which will later allow our descendants to restore that great heroic period in which we live.

The Museum of Revolution should reflect both the revolutions of the West and the revolutionary movement in Russia aimed at the overthrow of the autocracy. The Decembrists, the Petrashevists, Herzen, Chernyshevsky, the Narodniks and the Narodnaya Volya must be represented within its walls – but the main attention should be paid to the history of the revolutionary movement of the hegemonic class of the socialist revolution – the proletariat, the great October Revolution, which – it can hardly be doubted now – is the beginning of a new era in the life of human renewal.

The October Revolution should be restored in its smallest details. The process of its preparation, its triumph, its struggle with countless enemies, its growth and strengthening should be revealed in the museum. Oral propaganda, familiarizing the masses with the history of the revolutionary movement, comprehensive scientific study of the issues of the past revolution, popularization of historical and revolutionary knowledge, exhibition of objects that characterize the revolution – these are the tasks that the museum will set itself.

In order to be able to discern the tasks facing it, the museum must connect with the working class, it must rely on it, it must attract its representatives to its active work – only then will it do its job.

But the museum can fulfill its purpose only if it uses all the scientific forces, experience and knowledge of specialist historians who are ready to work in the field of studying the revolutionary past. All of them will find wide scope and opportunities for their work in the museum.

With its help, they will shed new light on the confusing, dark sides of the revolutionary past. They will extract from the darkness of obscurity many glorious pages of the history of the Russian revolution.

And the Museum of the Revolution will become a new symbol of that alliance of science and the proletariat, of labor and knowledge, under which the development of the workers’ revolution is taking place, that invincible force that will conquer all.

“Revolutions are the ‘locomotive of history,’” said Karl Marx. With a rapidity unprecedented in the past, the locomotive of the proletarian revolution is rushing forward and forward. To reflect its movement in all its aspects and details is the most grateful and great task of the revolutionary museum.

Source: Pushkinskii dom (Saint-Petersburg), f. 627 (P. E. Shchegolev), op. 3., d. 204.