Rivendell_librarian
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- Joined
- Aug 19, 2018
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| I've just finished Ten Days that shook the World by US journalist John Reed about the Russian Revolution. Reed was there in person when all the major characters and meetings took place, and in the theatre of battle which was the very early stage of the civil war that followed the revolution. In the simplistic version of history I was told at school, this is framed as Mensheviks vs Bolsheviks, as Kerensky vs Lenin and Trotsky. Stalin is mentioned but seems to be a major figure in the background. But there are a lot of other characters and political parties in the drama, as well as various councils and newspapers that feature. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more characters here than in War and Peace which is much longer of course. Thankfully there is a good index and an introductory chapter that explains the political stance of all these. This is real non fiction drama. Reed supports the Bolsheviks but the journalist in him gives due weight to all the factions. The meetings are rowdy and chaotic with ordinary workers/soldiers/peasants/sailors taking to the same platform as Trotsky, Lenin and the other main Bolsheviks in the same meeting. My favourite passages are when Reed meets people outside of these meetings. There is one passage in a town near Petrograd where Reed had gone to witness the fighting where a young Red Army soldier, guarding a local Soviet HQ, is confronted by a crowd of students, shopkeepers etc. In answer to one sarcastic student, he simply repeats the idea that there are two kinds of people: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and if you are in one group you can't be in the other. The situation he is in proves his point. The second one is on returning to Petrograd in the dark and seeing the beautiful lights of the city after victory over Kerensky, his driver says there is beautiful Petrograd, now my Petrograd, our Petrograd. |
