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A review by pink_distro
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Miéville
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.