By October 1917 Tsar Nicholas II had already been out of power for seven months, as he had abdicated in March. The October Bolshevik Revolution was against the multi-party Provisional Government led by Alexander Kerensky, not the Romanov monarchy.

Recently, archivists at the Tretyakov Gallery where the Black Square is now located discovered a racist joke hidden under the cracking black paint. Kasimir Malevich had apparently written “Battle of negroes in a dark cave.” on the canvas. In September 2018 the painting Suprematist Composition by Malevich auctioned at Christie’s in NYC for over 85 million dollars. Socialism works better in a painting than it does in real life apparently.