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schnauzermum's review
2.0
This is a highly partisan account of the Russian Revolution. As Miéville is honest about his views, that is not necessarily a problem in itself. But I missed the human element. It seems to me that the benefit of a novelist writing a work of history is a deeper insight into human motivation. Yet that was missing. I didn’t gain a greater understanding of why the Russian Revolution happened when and in the way that it did. I wish Miéville had written a novel instead. If you want to understand the Russian Revolution, read Orlando Figes.
benplatt's review against another edition
5.0
Miéville offers a propulsive history of an embattled, pivotal moment in world history. Rather than offering a sort of quasi-verisimilitude or half-hearted effort at restricting biases, Miéville writes firmly and clearly from our present day perspective with the novelistic, rigorous voice that he brings to his own fiction. What the October revolution will become is never forgotten, nor are the fates of its major players, but for awhile, Miéville manages to create a space in which we can examine those generative early days of revolution, the degradation of which "was not a given, was not written in any stars" (307). A brilliant history that not only illuminates what happened in 1917, but allows for us to imagine what other paths could have been taken, critiquing revolutionary history without foreclosing the imaginative possibilities of what might have been.
pink_distro's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
inspiring
tense
fast-paced
4.5
i could not put this book down. the whole thing was powerful and tense. Miéville doesnt only capture the political drama — the stunning reversals, betrayals, comic moments, fateful miscommunications, accidents of history, etc — but also the explosive, widely-felt revolutionary energy of the moment that was filled with so much potential and peril. he shows millions of normal people, brutally ruled over by monarchs & landlords only months before, standing up, thinking, debating, and deciding together how they want to change their world, leaping into the unknown with no script or examples to guide them.
as Miéville notes, though it ends in heart wrenching tragedy, the fact that for a brief period people beat capital & monarchism to take control of their lives is a source of inspiration. you see snapshots of people doing it through their workers' and peasants' councils, their soldier's committees, their conference of soldiers' wives, their factory committees, their soviets, their all-russian congress of muslim women, their congress of nations of poles, ukrainians, jews, uzbeks, muslims, finns, etc., their assemblies and parties and unions and so much more. i learned a lot and will be thinking about this for a while.
as Miéville notes, though it ends in heart wrenching tragedy, the fact that for a brief period people beat capital & monarchism to take control of their lives is a source of inspiration. you see snapshots of people doing it through their workers' and peasants' councils, their soldier's committees, their conference of soldiers' wives, their factory committees, their soviets, their all-russian congress of muslim women, their congress of nations of poles, ukrainians, jews, uzbeks, muslims, finns, etc., their assemblies and parties and unions and so much more. i learned a lot and will be thinking about this for a while.
margaux's review against another edition
3.0
"The revolutionaries want a new country in a new world, one they cannot see but believe they can build. And they believe that in so doing, the builders will also build themselves anew."
christianholub's review against another edition
4.0
China Mieville is one of my favorite authors, but up until now I've only read his fiction - his weird, dark, urban Lovecraftian fantasy that your brain just feasts on in books like "Perdido Street Station." Left-wing ideas are present in his fiction (the scene of a state militia storming and breaking a dock strike is one of the most vivid sequences in "Perdido," and that book has spiders that eat dreams) and he seems preternaturally obsessed with the idea of the city, from the sprawling metropolis of New Crubozon to the floating pirate city of "The Scar" to the intertwined and independent shadow cities of "The City & the City." Those elements come together in this nonfiction account of the Russian Revolution. I've gotten really interested in reading about the revolution on its 100th anniversary this year, and Mieville's narrative (told in real time, from February to October 1917) makes that brief shining moment come alive.
akglaurung's review against another edition
3.0
3 αστρακια γιατι, ενω το παει μια χαρα, στον επιλογο αυτα που γραφει για την ΕΣΣΔ και τον Σταλιν ειναι σαν να τα εγραψε 20χρονος εακκιτης για εφημεριδακι σχηματος.
marcymurli's review against another edition
4.0
This is a really wonderful account of the Russian Revolution. Miéville's use of language is glorious and his sense of the import of events unfolding is told masterfully. If you want to know the nitty-gritty of what happened in the year 1917 in Russia, precisely how the revolution unfolded, this is a terrific book to read. At times the granular details can be a bit too much minutiae, but overall it's a captivating read.