Books on the Russian Revolution: S and D

oops sorry, inappropriate thread.

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

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

calzino had good words about it i think.

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.

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.

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.

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 :-(

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

More like a slug tbh

This is a read:

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

a hissy fit over genocide denial. tankie get bent.

lol

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/

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

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

Radio Essays on Revolution-era artists

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

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

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.

Never even heard of that

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.

This looks interesting:

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