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samferree 's review for:
October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
by China Miéville
There's an ongoing debate I am interested in whether or not Marxism-Leninism inevitably led to Stalinism and Mieville is firmly on the side of, "No." This is a thrilling, fascinating narrative that gives the reader the barest understanding of what it was like to be among the revolutionaries in Petrograd in 1917 -- the anxiety, boundless hope, impatience, absurdity, and sense that history was being irrevocably made. Also, it gives a sense of how parliamentary they were. So. Many. Committee. Meetings. It's difficult to remember all the different civic, party, and government institutions vying, bickering, deciding, reneging, debating, voting, minuting, calling points of order, proclaiming, condemning, celebrating.
Above all, October is Mieville's jeremiad. On every page, he seems to be lamenting, "It could have been different."
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Later Note: One thing that Mieville does explain well is why so many people idolize Lenin, which is, ironically, the reason I have a difficult time taking the man seriously -- He was a zealot. Arguably, Leninism did not inevitably lead to Stalinism, but Lenin's uncompromising dogmatism and fanatical devotion to his social engineering "science" certainly seems to be a main ingredient of the totalitarian meat grinder that emerged under his successor.
Above all, October is Mieville's jeremiad. On every page, he seems to be lamenting, "It could have been different."
#
Later Note: One thing that Mieville does explain well is why so many people idolize Lenin, which is, ironically, the reason I have a difficult time taking the man seriously -- He was a zealot. Arguably, Leninism did not inevitably lead to Stalinism, but Lenin's uncompromising dogmatism and fanatical devotion to his social engineering "science" certainly seems to be a main ingredient of the totalitarian meat grinder that emerged under his successor.