Young Enthusiasts Bring Bolsheviks to Power

"See that kid, holding the banner there? When this picture was made, that kid had exactly thirty seconds to live."

- Old Indy

Young Enthusiasts Bring Bolsheviks to Power is the title retroactively given to an image taken in 1917 by an unknown photographer during the July Days in Petrograd, though it was erroneously dated to October 1917 by later historians.

The photo depicts a group of demonstrators with banners marching through a square as they head for Tauride Palace, shortly before a regiment of Cossack snipers backing the Russian Provisional Government began firing on them with machine guns from nearby rooftops. Sergei Aleev and his partner Irena are amongst those leading the march.



When Professor Henry Jones came across the photograph at the "Vladimir Lenin: Scenes of Revolt" exhibition, he informed its curator that the picture was labelled wrong and described its proper context. Although the curator doubted his expertise, Jones demonstrated his direct knowledge of those events by pointing out his own blurred presence in the photo, trying in vain to save Sergei from being killed.