A People's Tragedy - The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924

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J.D.
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A People's Tragedy - The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924

Post by J.D. »

This is Orlando Figes' 824 page tome on what is probably the single most misunderstood event in human history. Some have argued that it's also the most important (don't blame me; I didn't say it).

824 pages you say? Yep and it's actually not that hard to read. I read it sporadically over a period of 2 months, never putting it down for long enough to actually lose the thread of it. That's got to be the sign of a good book. I must admit when I bought it, I had my doubts about finishing it and I never read more than 20-30 pages at a time.

Forget about the polemics. The Russian Revolution didn't just happen in 1917 and wasn't just a bunch of Bolshies coming in and shooting everyone. It isn't about Stalin's purges either. It is neither a defence of, nor a condemnation of any particular political ideology. Figes lets you work that out for yourself. There are many things which are left out: Russia's industrial progress between the revolution of 1905 and the mid-point of WWI as well as the peculiar Russian recruiting system for the army (which resulted in younger men staying home for the harvest) are a couple of examples. Both had enormous influence of the outcome of Russia's involvement in WWI. Fortunately, Norman Stone's book "The Eastern Front, 1914-1917 fills this void extremely well, especially when it comes to explaining the role of infrastructure, both physical and administrative.

The revolution really started in February 1917, when Russia went from being effectively a dictatorship to the most liberal democracy on the planet. In October, the Bolsheviks moved into power due, in no small part, to the stupidity of many others in the Petrograd Soviet and the Provisional Government. The triggering of the Civil War, in early 1918 laid the fuse for four years of bitter fighting and the 1921 famine. By 1922, something like 10 million people (of 160 million) had died, either through acts of violence, disease attributable to war or starvation. To attempt to lay the blame for this at the feet of any one individual or group would be the height of naivety. Certainly there were some who were more responsible than others but Figes' story really gives you the feeling that, except for a few like Lvov, Brusilov and Gorky, there were no goodies and baddies. There were only baddies and baddies.

Figes also rather goes up the wrong path in accepting Yusupov's version of events relating to the murder of Rasputin but that may be because a better version has been unearthed more recently. It's a very minor point.

The scale of the thing is staggering. It's not even worth me trying to describe the sequence of events or personalities involved. I would have to write another book to do it. It wasn't just right v left or good v bad or any of the polemics which are so popular in today's world where everyone wants a simple explanation. That just isn't possible to do if you want to understand it. To be honest, in a way Figes only scratches the surface.

But it's not so complicated that it can't be readily understood. Figes' writing style is not too academic and I never found myself labouring through it the way I have with some other books.

Highly recommended.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/1 ... iew.review" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by J.D. on Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Vilante
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Re: A People's Tragedy - The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924

Post by Vilante »

Awesome, thanks for the review JD. One day maybe :)
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