Books on the Russian Revolution: S and D

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Writing a longggg paper on Alexander Kerensky for a class, so I just checked out about 15 books on the subject from the library. So far I've delved most into Orlando Figes's "A People's Tragedy"; anyone know any other good ones?

You can talk about books in Russia in general too, of course.

― J.D., Thursday, 8 March 2007 09:19 (seventeen years ago) link

John Reed's Ten Days That Shook The World is interesting - a left-wing American journalist's account of the October Revolution as it unfolded in St Petersburg. It gives an interesting sense of the extent to which suddenly! nothing happened, as the revolution proceeds through a series of committee meetings and occupations strangely reminiscent of students' union politics (well, maybe not so strange - presumably the junior Leninists feel this is how all politics should be). Might be a bit tangential to what you're doing although Kerensky is a substantial presence in the book.

On Russia more generally, I thought Orlando Figes' other book, Natasha's Dance was excellent.

― Eoghan, Thursday, 8 March 2007 09:48 (seventeen years ago) link

My first post seemed to have got lost, so here it is re-created.

The best account I have read of the Russian Revolution is Leon Trotsky's "History of the Russian Revolution" a huge account by one of the central participants. It starts from the political and economic situation of Russia before the 20th Century, leading into the crucial period. It's easy to read, full of humour and anecdote. It also has an amusing account of Kerensky fleeing the capital after he realises he has become superfluous to political events.

As mentioned above, John Reed's "Ten Days that Shook the World" is an amazing account of the events in St. Petersburg, though it's not just about committee meetings - the descriptions of his trips to the front and some of the mass meetings are fascinating.

Before writing the Swallow's and Amazon novels, Arthur Ransome was Russian correspondant for the Guardian. He wrote two book about the revolution, both probably out of print (they were reprinted in the mid 90s by Bookmarks www.bookmarks.uk.com) Ransome became close to some of the leading figures of the revolution (going on to marry Trotsky's secretary, who later helped found the British Communist Party).

Finally, I'd like to recommend Victor Serge's "Year One of the Russian Revolution". Serge was a French anarchist who, similarly to Reed and Ransome, went to Russia to commentate on events, he ended up joining the Bolsheviks and becoming a key figure in the International. His book is interesting, precisely because it has comes from someone initially skeptical about some of the events in Russia, and contains fasciating accounts of meetings, events and characters. Some of his later novels also give interesting insights into the degeneration of the revolution, it's isolation and destruction by Stalin, though that's probably a later period than you are writing about.

― ResoluteReader, Thursday, 8 March 2007 09:59 (seventeen years ago) link

I will ask my russophilic friend, whose tastse in such things I generally trust, next time I see him online. Meanwhile, check out languagehat.com -- he has talked about such things a lot.

― Casuistry, Thursday, 8 March 2007 17:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Although I haven't finished I have no hesitation about "History of the Russian Revolution". Lots of contempt for his enemies (Kerensky, but he's also hard/fair on some of his then colleagues), you picture him typing so hard some of the keys probably flew off!

Any good books on Russia to emerge since, well, the archives have opened up (I imagine there is more access)? Looking for books that look into the degeneration of October.

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 11 March 2007 10:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Russophilic friend says that Figes is nice if poppy but not in a way that makes him wrong or anything, and that he's mostly read much more specific stuff about the revolution on various topics and doesn't have anything general to recommend, nor has he read much on Kerensky. So, oh well.

― Casuistry, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 05:49 (seventeen years ago) link

I started the Reed a couple days ago, it's pretty good stuff. I've dipped into Figes a lot but he really is a bit glib when it comes to stuff that isn't his pet subject (he's an expert on the peasants, but totally at a loss when it comes to Lenin).

Kerensky's first memoir, "The Catastrophe," is quite good and gives a vivid picture of what it must have been like to live through the February Revolution. It's got that same early 20th-century journalistic feel as Reed, if you like that.

Has anyone ever read Reed's other book, about Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution?

― J.D., Thursday, 22 March 2007 08:17 (seventeen years ago) link

stephen cohen's books are a bit of a slog (well, one of the two i read was - i think it was bukharin and the bolshevik revolution) but i had him once as a professor and he was enormously entertaining

― impudent harlot, Thursday, 29 March 2007 22:00 (seventeen years ago) link

four weeks pass...

Finally, I'd like to recommend Victor Serge's "Year One of the Russian Revolution". Serge was a French anarchist
Belgian of Russian parentage.

― jim, Thursday, 26 April 2007 18:26 (sixteen years ago) link

How embarrasing - you are absolutely correct - Serge was from Belgium. Perhaps I was thinking of Alfred Rosmer who was born in the US to a French family, who returned to France early in his life. Intially an anarchist, his experiences of Russia after the revolution, led him to help setup the French Commmunist Party.

He wrote a memoir of his experiences in Russia in the early 20s, called "Lenin's Moscow", it's a fabulous read about that period.

More on the Rosmers here

They kept the flame of revolution alive SW Dec 2004

― Resolute Reader, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:49 (sixteen years ago) link

"The Russian Revolution" by Richard Pipes is a good (long) general history.

― 31g, Monday, 14 May 2007 00:33 (sixteen years ago) link

ten years pass...

Gtf BBC! Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Orlando Figes and Martin Amis talking about the Russian Revolution is garbage tv. No insight - just hackneyed bullshit.

― calzino, Friday, 13 October 2017 22:04 (six years ago) link

oops sorry, inappropriate thread.

― calzino, Friday, 13 October 2017 22:05 (six years ago) link

Anybody read China Mieville's book on the Russian Revolution? Is it an S or a D?

― .oO (silby), Friday, 13 October 2017 22:34 (six years ago) link

Not read it myself, but a couple of people who I know who have claim it as amazing

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Saturday, 14 October 2017 06:10 (six years ago) link

calzino had good words about it i think.

― Fizzles, Saturday, 14 October 2017 20:50 (six years ago) link

i really dislike his fiction, but i've read enough good things about the RR book and rate his cultural stuff higher as well, so might pick it up.

― Fizzles, Saturday, 14 October 2017 20:51 (six years ago) link

I'm reading the Richard Pipes history now and it's useful as long as you take it with a grain of salt for it's clear anti-commie bias.

― IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Saturday, 14 October 2017 20:56 (six years ago) link

https://newsocialist.org.uk/after-the-end-of-the-world-re-reading-the-russian-revolution/amp/

Owen Hatherley round-up of a bunch of books.

― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Sunday, 22 October 2017 12:24 (six years ago) link

Excellent overview. I've only read about half a dozen things on NS and I've learned something from any of these - as well as enjoying the writing.

This is Fitzpatrick on Yuri Slezkine (who also had a recent spat with Anne Applebaum wrt her book on the Ukrainian famine (or I should say Applebaum threw a hissy fit - Fitzpatrick doesn't do spats, she seems v cordial). A frightening book that I would be dying to get to grips with, way back then :-(

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 22 October 2017 14:22 (six years ago) link

owen just about resisting the urge to refer to the "strange, hysterical figure of Alexander Kerensky" as a centrist dad there

― mark s, Sunday, 22 October 2017 14:27 (six years ago) link

More like a slug tbh

― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 22 October 2017 14:47 (six years ago) link

This is a read:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/06/how-stalin-became-stalinist

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 31 October 2017 21:36 (six years ago) link

a hissy fit over genocide denial. tankie get bent.

― bamcquern, Tuesday, 31 October 2017 21:55 (six years ago) link

lol

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 31 October 2017 22:01 (six years ago) link

I'm just about to finish Mieville's October and have liked it. I haven't yet read any of his fiction (but have a copy of The City in the City on my shelf), but find he writes in a gripping way and is able to successfully synthesize a lot of different information together without sacrificing narrative momentum. I personally found his recounting of the summer months leading up to October to be informative (having lacked any real knowledge about it beforehand), though if you are already familiar with the immediate lead-up to October and the underlying conditions, I'm not sure how engaging you'll find the book. There are some brief, evocative descriptive passages where he brings his more novelistic prose style to bear on the subject matter.

One frustrating thing is that they chose to publish it w/out references/citations, which some people will also undoubtedly find annoying.

Has anyone read or looked into the Slezkine? I hadn't heard about it until reading this review in the NYRB. I will also read the Fitzpatrick linked above. It sounds good...
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/11/23/bolshevisms-new-believers/

― Federico Boswarlos, Monday, 13 November 2017 15:44 (six years ago) link

Slezkine's book looks intriguing. I'm waiting for a library copy to become available.

― jmm, Monday, 13 November 2017 15:52 (six years ago) link

I would need to figure how to hold it in my hands before I can read that..

― xyzzzz__, Monday, 13 November 2017 23:02 (six years ago) link

Radio Essays on Revolution-era artists

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 16 November 2017 18:34 (six years ago) link

This is out in a couple of weeks, and looks good

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0726/9203/products/Earthly_Signs_final_cover_2048x2048.jpg?v=1505750974

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Tuesday, 21 November 2017 22:43 (six years ago) link

Got the world of time for Tsvetaeva's prose so bring it.

― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 23 November 2017 10:09 (six years ago) link

I just finished "Let the blood of Man Not Flow" by Mikhailo Stelmakh, talking of the Ukraine, set in a tiny village across a few days in 1917. It's really good, though it has some of the problems you'd expect. I am still angry about the (lack of) comeuppance received by a treacherous rich kulak, though I suppose I should perhaps comfort and berate myself in equal measure with knowledge of what would happen to the kulaks in a few years.

― Tim, Friday, 24 November 2017 16:39 (six years ago) link

Never even heard of that

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 24 November 2017 22:59 (six years ago) link

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n22/tj-clark/reinstall-the-footlights

Way too much navel-gazing by T.J. Clark for this piece to go anywhere - still its probably the best thing we are likely to read on all of these anniversary shows.

I think he did jump the gun. I would've liked him to see Ilya and Emilia Kabakov show at Tate modern (http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/ilya-and-emilia-kabakov) and Red Star Over Russia (http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/red-star-over-russia). I saw the former briefly on Saturday. There was A LOT, and a lot of play, and different types of play at that.

― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 December 2017 11:59 (six years ago) link

This looks interesting:

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/15/the-house-of-government-by-yuri-slezkine-review-russian-revolution?__twitter_impression=true

― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Saturday, 16 December 2017 09:10 (six years ago) link

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