October

the story of the Russian Revolution

369 pages

English language

Published March 5, 2017 by Verso.

ISBN:
978-1-78478-277-1
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OCLC Number:
956957477

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5 stars (2 reviews)

"Acclaimed fantasy author China Mieville plunges us into the year the world was turned upside down The renowned fantasy and science fiction writer China Mieville has long been inspired by the ideals of the Russian Revolution and here, on the centenary of the revolution, he provides his own distinctive take on its history. In February 1917, in the midst of bloody war, Russia was still an autocratic monarchy: nine months later, it became the first socialist state in world history. How did this unimaginable transformation take place? How was a ravaged and backward country, swept up in a desperately unpopular war, rocked by not one but two revolutions? This is the story of the extraordinary months between those upheavals, in February and October, of the forces and individuals who made 1917 so epochal a year, of their intrigues, negotiations, conflicts and catastrophes. From familiar names like Lenin and Trotsky to …

2 editions

A whole lot about Petrograd

5 stars

I was really curious about this book more for its author than because I really needed to learn about the Russian Revolution. China Mieville is a pretty successful sci-fi and fantasy author whose works blend surrealism, fantasy, and politics. But beyond his successful fiction he also writes and edits an unconventional communist journal called Salvage from England and publishes some non-fiction like this book on the Russian Revolution.

From the introduction Mieville responds to the unasked question," why do we need another history book about the Russian revolution?" By suggesting that rather than being just another history text that he undertook an attempt to write a narrative of the revolution that follows it from its embers to insurrection.

It read confidently as a hybrid narrative/history book which prioritizes the debates, actions, and tensions of the revolution over citations and scholars opinions on it. That being said, this narrative does take …

A very engaging retelling of the 1917 Russian Revolution

4 stars

China Miéville is a storyteller, as he is a leftists. His month-by-month retelling of the October Revolution is deeply researched and engaging. He's also fair in his portrayal of a very partisan moment in time. And I really enjoyed the fact that he avoided delving into tedious debates about finer points of marxist theory ; there's a greay many books for that, but this book is perfect for a more general approach with rich details.

Subjects

  • History

Places

  • Soviet Union