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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
This was an interesting, non intimidating look at the Russian Revolution. Whilst definitely not an 'academic textbook', it make this turbulent time in history accessible and removes Western demonisation of the truly bloody aftermath and paints the roots of the cause as what they were: the actions of a starving, exploited underclass fighting to make their basic living conditions bearable.
Separated from the typical tired neoliberal talking points, to see the story wrote not just about the bloody battles on the streets between the working class and sympathisers such as the Crossaks with the army, but also the academic debates happening in secret meetings across Russia by the Socialistic Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Kadets, Kerenskyites and Bolsheviks was enlightening.
However this doesn't mean that sometimes the book wasn't boring. Because god damn was the book sometimes boring. Whether that was Mieville',s writings fault, or just an ADHD riddled millennial brains fault, there were times where I got lost in all the terminologies and had to reread the same passages multiple times to comprehend what was written, then end up waking 7 hours later with the novel sprawled across the floor.
Highly recommended to any budding socialists who are yet to deep dive into the history, but I doubt it'll convince anyone who is hard set on communism being nothing more than a bloody mistake.
Separated from the typical tired neoliberal talking points, to see the story wrote not just about the bloody battles on the streets between the working class and sympathisers such as the Crossaks with the army, but also the academic debates happening in secret meetings across Russia by the Socialistic Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, Kadets, Kerenskyites and Bolsheviks was enlightening.
However this doesn't mean that sometimes the book wasn't boring. Because god damn was the book sometimes boring. Whether that was Mieville',s writings fault, or just an ADHD riddled millennial brains fault, there were times where I got lost in all the terminologies and had to reread the same passages multiple times to comprehend what was written, then end up waking 7 hours later with the novel sprawled across the floor.
Highly recommended to any budding socialists who are yet to deep dive into the history, but I doubt it'll convince anyone who is hard set on communism being nothing more than a bloody mistake.
informative
slow-paced
medium-paced
informative
fast-paced
The author had a tendency to write extremely convoluted sentences and sometimes it got very disorienting.
I was glad to be done with this book. The publisher claims that it is for the reader new to the events being described, but this is no introductory level read. Most of the time, I could follow the big picture of what was happening, but the details were very confusing. Especially if you can't remember the names of what felt like hundreds of political groups and sub-groups, as well as individuals and which group they belonged to. I'm glad I read it, and I hooe to use what I learned to build off of it as I read more books about Russian history, but it was not an easy read. True rating: 2.5 stars.
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
dark
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
This book was definitely not for me. I have a couple of political books I hoped to read this year and after reading this one I have low hopes for reading them. It’s not a bad book. It’s very informative but everything I read I felt like I wasn’t retaining it. I think I’ll be coming back to this one maybe in a year or two in hopes to understand it better.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced