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davidcoaker's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
A romantic, mournful and yet hopeful telling of the first socialist revolution in history. Expansive and expressive in its depth when it comes to the various factions vying for power in Russia and yet undoubtly human when it comes to not only the women and men at the forefront of the revolution but also of the everyday working class and peasants that fought and struggled for a new world to be born. You can see the character of all the various figures involved, whether it’s the stoic incompetent nepocrat Nicholas II or the larger-than-life prophetic Lenin. Whether the bumbling, tottering Kerensky or the charismatic Trotsky. Even though we know the tragic ending, the fact remains that for moments a new world was born and it can indeed be born again.
uselessmathom's review against another edition
3.0
Anyone familiar with Miéville's work knows he primarily writes sci-fi, which this isn't, and the peculiarity of this book is that it is not an academic work: there are no defined references, no bibliography, or footnotes; and it's not a novel either, it's just a composed narrative of February-October 1917 in Petrograd (with a few nods to other places).
If you've ever had trouble grasping the play-by-play of the Russian revolution, who said what, what decisions were made and in what order, this is a very good book for that, thanks to the format and the very easy to digest style of prose. The characters are vivid, and it does brush against some figures that don't necessarily get brought up too much nowadays, like Maria Spiridonova, and events such as the All-Muslim Russian Congress comprised of 112 female delegates (out of 900) that made some pretty progressive decisions, especially for the time.
The book does try to stay politically sober and clearheaded, as much as you can write a book like this without prejudice and bias, however, to nobody's surprise, some of Miéville's Trottyness does bleed through, especially in the Epilogue which is essentially handwringing about how the revolution was later betrayed by Stalin and yet we should celebrate it because there is no reason to think "its telos was always the gulag".
If I had one significant criticism in terms of what it covers, I feel like the book ended far too soon. It really ends with October, no less, not counting the epilogue which cursorily covers some of the ensuing events, mostly as a way for the author to explain his position on the Revolution. Be that as it may, the narrative of the Russian revolution seems a bit incomplete without the Civil War in my opinion.
I did like a lot of the anecdotes that aren't huge moments in history, but that still add a lot of interesting texture. I read in Orwell's Catalonia that during the SCW people (at least in Barcelona) all switched to "tu" and that left me wondering why eastern European (Russian, Yugoslav etc.) revolutions never abolished the T-V distinctions in language, even though "mister" and "miss" went away? Well apparently that actually was a big sticking point, Russian soldiers hated the fact that their superiors could use "ty" with them and petitioned the Soviet to forbid that practice because it was demeaning, but unlike the Anarchists of Barcelona who chose to use the singular "you" for everyone, the Russian soldiers and workers desired to be addressed with the polite form "vy" instead. Similarly, Russian waiters apparently would not accept tips because they saw it as a form of noblesse oblige, i.e. flaunting your superior circumstances in a worker's face through a display of chivalric mercy for the meek. Many moments such as that breathe life into what otherwise would have been just a textbook retelling of political events.
If you've ever had trouble grasping the play-by-play of the Russian revolution, who said what, what decisions were made and in what order, this is a very good book for that, thanks to the format and the very easy to digest style of prose. The characters are vivid, and it does brush against some figures that don't necessarily get brought up too much nowadays, like Maria Spiridonova, and events such as the All-Muslim Russian Congress comprised of 112 female delegates (out of 900) that made some pretty progressive decisions, especially for the time.
The book does try to stay politically sober and clearheaded, as much as you can write a book like this without prejudice and bias, however, to nobody's surprise, some of Miéville's Trottyness does bleed through, especially in the Epilogue which is essentially handwringing about how the revolution was later betrayed by Stalin and yet we should celebrate it because there is no reason to think "its telos was always the gulag".
If I had one significant criticism in terms of what it covers, I feel like the book ended far too soon. It really ends with October, no less, not counting the epilogue which cursorily covers some of the ensuing events, mostly as a way for the author to explain his position on the Revolution. Be that as it may, the narrative of the Russian revolution seems a bit incomplete without the Civil War in my opinion.
I did like a lot of the anecdotes that aren't huge moments in history, but that still add a lot of interesting texture. I read in Orwell's Catalonia that during the SCW people (at least in Barcelona) all switched to "tu" and that left me wondering why eastern European (Russian, Yugoslav etc.) revolutions never abolished the T-V distinctions in language, even though "mister" and "miss" went away? Well apparently that actually was a big sticking point, Russian soldiers hated the fact that their superiors could use "ty" with them and petitioned the Soviet to forbid that practice because it was demeaning, but unlike the Anarchists of Barcelona who chose to use the singular "you" for everyone, the Russian soldiers and workers desired to be addressed with the polite form "vy" instead. Similarly, Russian waiters apparently would not accept tips because they saw it as a form of noblesse oblige, i.e. flaunting your superior circumstances in a worker's face through a display of chivalric mercy for the meek. Many moments such as that breathe life into what otherwise would have been just a textbook retelling of political events.
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.