A review by johncbeynon
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution by China Miéville

3.0

This is a useful account of the Russian Revolution that focuses on the major political players in Petrograd. The book divides itself into chapters which highlight important events from February to October 1917. The glossary of names at the end of the book proved indispensable to someone like me who is unfamiliar with the details of the Bolshevik revolution. I especially appreciated the short final chapter reflecting on the meaning of the revolution and how we might understand the implications of this failed, but promising, experiment. The introduction is also a helpful prefatory history to the events described in more detail throughout the bulk of the study. However, I wish there had been a similar glossary devoted to abbreviations and descriptions of the many political factions that played a part in this history. Trying to keep track of the various wings of the parties and organizations proved difficult for me. I was also surprised to see how little information is devoted to Stalin, who clearly plays a major role in the October takeover of the government. Miéville wants to deflect attention away from a narrative that suggests that the pathway from Bolshevism to Leninism to Stalinism is inevitable; however, by nearly ignoring Stalin, I'm left with many questions about how Stalin came to derail the Russian democratic socialist experiment—how did he rise from unassuming bureaucrat and political organizer to one of the People's Commissars in the Bolshevik government.. I would also like to see more attention given to the ways in which Bolshevism was an attractive ideology and movement for the people who eventually sided with and fought for this cause. Finally, the work focuses almost exclusively on events in Petrograd, so I was left wanting to know more about the way the revolution unfolded in other regions of Russia. (Some small consideration is given to Moscow, Baku, and the Ukraine.) Miéville does provide a helpful annotated bibliography to send readers to other sources that appear to fill in the gaps I've just noted. Overall, this is a serviceable introduction to the nine months of unrest that lead up to the revolution, but the day-by-day (sometimes hour-by-hour) account of political and bureaucratic goings struck me as, at times, plodding and partial in scope.