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vibeys 's review for:
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
by China Miéville
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.