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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Good narrative driven nonfiction writing but was very disappointed by the uncritical/unscholarly accusations about “the crimes of communism”. I see how this may have been a naive exercise in even-handedness, contrasting the USSR’s supposed brutality with that of the White Army’s fascism. This attempt is phenomenally misguided and poorly executed: very little evidence is presented about the “Stalin’s Purges” or “The Gulags” instead, the book relies heavily on pre-conceived (a presumably American/NATO) anti-communist propaganda tropes of political suppression and violence. One striking example of this was the half-hearted and unfounded accusation of antisemitism in the USSR. In reality the USSR conducted the two largest-scale military and cultural campaigns AGAINST antisemitism. From Lenin’s social campaigns against to the liberation of N@zi concentration camps, ending the Holocaust, it is academically dishonest to claim that the USSR was just as antisemitic as the Russian Empire or the White Army.
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
(I thought I had already logged this)
October was a fascinating, at times confusing, incredibly detailed look at the months leading to October 2017 and the Russian revolution as we think of it. Its unrelenting pace either grabs you along for the ride or leaves you behind and each reader will approach it differently. The sheer number of characters (that is how you know it is nonfiction) made reading comprehension difficult at times if you are not already familiar with those who played a role in the revolution. Despite its faults, October remains a highly entertaining, non-academic way of learning about the series of events that lead to October 1917 and gives you a much better understanding of the root causes of the changes it lead to.
October was a fascinating, at times confusing, incredibly detailed look at the months leading to October 2017 and the Russian revolution as we think of it. Its unrelenting pace either grabs you along for the ride or leaves you behind and each reader will approach it differently. The sheer number of characters (that is how you know it is nonfiction) made reading comprehension difficult at times if you are not already familiar with those who played a role in the revolution. Despite its faults, October remains a highly entertaining, non-academic way of learning about the series of events that lead to October 1917 and gives you a much better understanding of the root causes of the changes it lead to.
Unsurprisingly given his background as a novelist, Miéville is really able to give the sense of history crashing forward like waves on rocks and every Russian scrambling to figure out where the next wave was going to hit and what they should do about it. It makes for gripping reading and is authentically helpful in understanding why the Russian Revolution happened the way that it did.
Relato minucioso sobre o ano revolucionário, o livro acompanha quase diariamente os principais acontecimentos na Rússia em ebulição popular entre Fevereiro e Outubro de 1917. Obra interessante para quem pretende sair do conhecimento superficial sobre a Revolução Russa e avaliar o grande impacto que gerou na história mundial do século XX. Recomendo!
This is a book about the mechanics of the Russian revolution, and in that it delivers a compelling and dramatic retelling of what seemed like quite a time to be living in Petrograd. It doesn't dig deeply into the societal roots of the revolution, and offers little view into what was happening outside of the interminable progressions of congresses, provisional government caucuses and so on. But that's not the point.
A bit hectic for me. I also found myself wishing the background information before the revolution had been more substantial, one short introduction just doesn't seem to cut it. I did learn a lot though and had no idea how little I actually knew about the Russian Revolution. The author's style does lend urgency, which I liked, and he's careful to show how things could have very easily gone any number of other ways.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-paced