October - China Miéville

    2017; 320 pages.  Full Title: October: The Story of the Russian Revolution.  New Author: No.  Genres : Russian History; Russian Politics; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    Believe it or not, once upon a time, the United States invaded Russia!  It was back in the years 1918-1921, and was a direct response to something called the October Revolution.

 

    To be fair, the United States wasn’t the only invader.  French, British, Japanese, German, Serbian, and Polish troops helped out as well.  The Wikipedia article cites quite few other countries sending troops.

 

    The reason for this broad-based foreign intervention was clear.  The Russians had done the unpardonable sin of installing the Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin, to lead the country.  Russia had become a Socialist state!

 

    And as everyone knows, Socialism is contagious.  If one country falls into its clutches, pretty soon it will spread like a virus to all sorts of other countries!

 

What’s To Like...

    October is China Miéville’s chronicle detailing the events leading up to, and including, the October Revolution.  The bulk of the chapters focus on  the monthly vicissitudes in February through October 1917, which are sandwiched between an Introduction and a “before” chapter at the beginning and an Epilogue chapter at the end.

 

    In the Introduction, Miéville admits that, although he is going to be fair in describing events in this book, he is not going to be neutral.  This was not unexpected since he is an avowed Socialist and October is arguably the celebration of Socialism’s finest hour.  So I was pleasantly surprised when he portrayed the major leaders of the movement—Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin—in a “warts and all” fashion.

 

    The book is written in English, not American, so you some weird spellings, such as disembowelled, defence, skilfully, programme, learnt, and a variant of one of my favorite words, bowdlerised.  I loved it, although Spellchecker went nutso with that previous sentence.

 

    Before reading October, I knew only a smattering about the Russian Revolution.  Czar Nicholas abdicates early on, a right-winger named Alexander Kerensky takes over, much to the Western World’s delight.  Then Lenin overthrows Kerensky, much to the Western World’s dismay.  That's about the extent of what I already knew.

 

    October filled in the gaps nicely.  I learned that Petrograd, not Moscow, was the capital of Russia at the time.  A slew of coalitions were tried, and failed, in amongst the Nicholas/Kerensky/Lenin regimes.  Factory workers, peasants, lower-ranked soldiers, and women were powerful forces in determining who eventually came to rule Russia.  The fact that Russia was still using the Gregorian calendar, not the Julian one used by the rest of the world makes listing a date for the various events a major pain.  And much, much more.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Jacquerie (n.) : a violent, spontaneous uprising or revolt by peasants against the ruling noble class

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.3*/5, based on 706 ratings and 105 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.91*/5, based on 6,937 ratings and 945 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    The government had equivocated over the issue of women’s suffrage.  Many even in the revolutionary movement were hesitant, warning that, though they supported the equality of women ‘in principle’, concretely Russia’s women were politically ‘backward’, and their votes therefore risked hindering progress.  On her return to the country on the 18^th, Kollontai took those prejudices head-on.

    “But wasn’t it we women, with our grumbling about hunger, about the disorganisation in Russian life, about our poverty and the sufferings born of the war, who awakened a popular wrath?” she demanded.  The revolution, she pointed out, was born on International Women’s Day.  (pg. 93)

 

    “What about people’s commissars?” said Trotsky.

    “Yes, that’s very good,” Lenin said.  “It smells terribly of revolution.” The seed of the revolutionary government, the Council pf People’s Commissars, Sovnarkom, was sown.

    Lenin suggested Trotsky for commissar of the interior.  But Trotsky foresaw that enemies on the right would attack him — as a Jew.

    “Of what importance are such trifles?” Lenin snapped.

    “There are still a good many fools left,” Trotsky replied.

    “Surely we don’t keep step with fools?”

    “Sometimes,” said Trotsky, “one has to make some allowances for stupidity.”  (pg. 284)

 

“One must always try to be as radical as reality itself.”  (pg. 231)

    There’s very little profanity in October.  I noted only five instances in the entire book, and those were mostly from direct quotes.

 

    Despite the trove of well-researched historical information, I found October to be a slow read.  This was mostly due to incredible number of Russian dignitaries and political factions that came into play.  To be fair, China Miéville includes a “Glossary of Personal Names” at the back of the book.  But it felt like every page had a dozen unfamiliar names, so I soon gave up trying to keep track of them.

 

    Finally, although the Epilogue chapter touches briefly on events occurring after October, 1917, I yearned for many more details about them.  The Czar and his entire family are murdered.  Foreign armies pour into Russia.  Lenin dies, Stalin comes to power, and purges proliferate.  Discussions of these things are sorely needed.

 

    But that just means I’m hoping China Miéville is working on a sequel to October.  I learned a lot from reading about a world-changing uprising, and look forward to learning even more.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  Rasputin, the mad monk, who Miéville says was neither mad nor a monk, gets some ink in the first chapter.  He may not be the scariest dude to have walked this Earth, but . . . wait, yes, he *IS* the scariest dude to have walked this Earth.