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Abstract. This article analyzes instrumentalization of the 1917 revolution image in the history policy of Perestroika. It demonstrates the context of revolutionary discourse reactualization made by different social and political forces of the Soviet Union in the second half of 1980s. Specific attention is given to 1987, when the 70th anniversary of the revolution was celebrated. Those days the October Revolution was used by authorities headed by M.S. Gorbachev as a symbolic legitimation of Perestroika. It is shown that during this period there was rehabilitation of the February Revolution, the image of the latter was also used for formal justification of Soviet social and economic system reforming. It is concluded that a symbolic project of the M.S. Gorbachev’s team proved to be unsuccessful due to the fact that very soon after other social forces seized the initiative in interpretation of revolutionary symbols. Moreover, active uses of the revolutionary discourse contributed to radicalization of society and called for more active changes and giving up Soviet values. The revolutionary romanticism of various socio-political forces was substituted by new characters, showing the rejection of loyalty to the Soviet ideology. The mythology based on the October Revolution turned into the mythology of pre-revolutionary Russia. It indicates a loss of the revolution myth and its status of value that was a painful blow to the Soviet Union, which historical legitimacy was based on the October Revolution myth.
Keywords: the October revolution, the February revolution, historical policy, Perestroika, the 70th anniversary of the 1917 Revolution.