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The Internationale, the great socialist hymn written in France in 1871
and adopted by the Bolsheviks in the 1920s as the anthem of the Russian Revolution.
"For reason in revolt now thunders," run the lines, "and at last ends the age of cant."
"Away with all your superstitions, servile masses, arise!"
Throughout this series, we've had images of many individual rulers,
from Ramesses II and Alexander the Great to the Oba of Benin and King Edward VII.
But today, in our final week, we have the image of a new kind of ruler.
Not an "I", but a "we".
Not an individual, but a whole class.
In Soviet Russia, we see the power of the people, or rather, the leadership of the proletariat.
The masses are no longer servile.
Our object in this program is a painted china plate that celebrates the Revolution and its new leadership class.
Seven decades of a new era are about to begin.
This plate is just the start of the journey.
In one object, you can see the old regime and the new regime,
and the change from the one to the other.
And there are very few objects in which history is so clearly present before you.
A History of the World in 100 Objects.
Russian Revolutionary Porcelain Plate.