Just finished Red October by Douglas Boyd. The book chronicles the lead up to, the events of, and the civil war following the Russian Revolutions. It was a great read as it starts with the lives of Marx and Engels and their philosophies. This is followed by the main trio: Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin. After a brief origin story for each of them in the early chapters, the book then changes tune and follows the ineptitude of the last Russian Emperor as he blunders time and again with foreign and domestic policy. He was totally out of touch on how to be a ruler, and on how his country was even ruled up to that point. Times were changing, and Russia was in the past. It didn't help that his father didn't bother to teach him anything, as he thought Nicholas II was too stupid to learn. Why Nicholas II was made his successor is beyond me. I put the blame on the entire revolution on the shoulders of Nicholas II and WW1. Not only was the army woefully under armed and trained, but the home front could not support such an endeavor. Combine this with outdated tactics, an aggressive enemy, and foreign funding of prominent exiled revolutionaries, it was a powder keg thrown into the fireplace. I felt rather bad for Nicholas II.
Boyd really shows how dire life was during the wars, revolutions, and counter revolutions. You really get to know the main three players mentioned earlier and how much they just hated each other. If Stalin didn't over shadow Lenin in history as a megalomaniac, I'd rank Lenin up there with Napoleon and Alexander. Lenin wanted the world, but only if he was the sole ruler of it. Trotsky was rather flamboyant in comparison and was diametrically opposed to Lenin in most things. Stalin just played in the background waiting, biding his time and gathering secret support. It truly was a revolution, as it ended up similar from where they started. After the dust was settled, Lenin (and later Stalin) were the monarchs, just in a different name. The communist party was their religion, where banishment from the party was no different than being excommunicated from the church in medieval times. The secret Tsar police, the Okhrana, was replaced by the Cheka. Oppression of the peasants and the working class just changed hands rather than improved their well being. The list goes on.
The most interesting of the accounts in the book was a chapter two-thirds of the way through about the execution and disposal of the Tsar and his family. It is written as a report by the commissar in charge that was retold by said commissar years after the event. If the subject matter wasn't so grim, it would be comical, but was overall very compelling. There are a number of colorful characters that pop in and out throughout the book, along with flavorful small stories.
If I had one complaint: it's that the author seemed to sneer at the people or subject matter at times. I know most of these men are not looked upon favorably by contemporaries, but I generally like a unbiased (or as unbiased as you can get) viewpoint when dealing with historical subjects. That is just my own pet peeve, but all in all it was a really nice read, especially if the era or subject matter of revolution interests you. I'd recommend it to any history buff.
