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ryanhoodie_ 's review for:
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
by China Miéville
3.5 stars. A ton of information here about 1917, but I definitely left with more questions than I started with. The book can be confusing at times with it's huge cast of characters and constantly changing political bodies. I never quite figured out the political differences between the Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, SRs, left militants, etc (not to mention the different wings within each party). But for the most part I think the confusion is more an accurate reflection of the time than any fault on the part of the author. One of the things that surprised me most was that many of the most famous Russian leftists were marginal players for most of the events here. The revolution truly was driven by the people. The politicians were just along for the ride.
It's hard to miss the parallels to the founding of America–Lenin and Washington, both of who string together loss after misstep after loss, only to win out in the end and find deification in death they never sought in life; dreams of a political utopia, with founding principles that both countries fail to live up to almost immediately. Given those principles, and knowing what the future would hold for the USSR, it read as tragedy every time a decision took them further away from the path toward a multiparty socialist democracy.
It's hard to miss the parallels to the founding of America–Lenin and Washington, both of who string together loss after misstep after loss, only to win out in the end and find deification in death they never sought in life; dreams of a political utopia, with founding principles that both countries fail to live up to almost immediately. Given those principles, and knowing what the future would hold for the USSR, it read as tragedy every time a decision took them further away from the path toward a multiparty socialist democracy.