A review by grete_rachel_howland
The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution by Yuri Slezkine

4.0

A beautiful balance between informative and moving, critical and sympathetic, primary sources and smart, humane analysis. This book is a commitment, but it goes faster (and more smoothly) than you'd think. Sometimes it was hard to keep track of the main players, but Slezkine re-introduces people frequently. I was especially intrigued by his dissection of the Revolution & Soviet Union vis a vis millenial religions (a comparison that worked well for me as a person raised in conservative/evangelical Christianity), and I thought the inclusion of so many photos from the period made what could have easily been a dry, dense narrative into a history of real, tragic lives.