New looks at Russian Revolution

My favourite book so far is Lenin on the Train by Catherine Merridale, which examines the challenges Vladimir Lenin faced when he decided to return to Russia after the initial revolt that led to Tsar Nicholas II’s abdication.

Merridale presents Lenin’s thoughts while in exile in Zurich, Switzerland, his strategy to return to Russia, the political intrigue that surrounded whisking Lenin out of Switzerland, and the subsequent rise of Lenin in Petrograd (St Petersburg).

I found it helped tremendously to be able to trace Lenin’s train trip back to Russia. The journey is filled with tension at every turn.

The story begins in Zurich and traces the political intrigue behind the scenes for Lenin to travel through Germany. He takes a boat to Sweden and then travels up Sweden in a sealed train to Haparanda, a border town between Sweden and Finland. He goes by train through Finland and ends up in Petrograd, where he begins to shove aside those who took charge of the revolution that took place before he got there.

Lenin’s ruthless streak, fed by his fanatical determination, emerges once he settles in Petrograd. Smear campaigns succeed in doing nothing but feeding his feelings of vengeance.

He turns on anyone who dares to question his thinking.

He steadfastly sticks to his political views on a peasant revolution, but it is most jolting to hear Lenin almost casually say that if the peasants are not ready to do what they need to do in this revolution, then there will have to be a dictatorship first.

The book ends with the chilling account of what happened to everyone on that fateful train ride with him. Between Lenin and Joseph Stalin, they are all handled in the cruellest, most unimaginable way. Here are some other new releases about the Russian Revolution.

The Russian Revolution: A New History by Sean McMeekin – This book, released on May 30, undoubtedly received its name as a ploy to lure new readers to this complex history. Russian history is terribly complicated. The names alone are difficult to master.

March 1917: On the Brink of War and Revolution by Will Englund – Interesting for its ambitious effort to condense the world’s feelings about World War I and the Russian Revolution into a onemonth time frame, On the Brink of War creates two parallel stories: US President Woodrow Wilson’s efforts to persuade Congress to enter World War I and the fall of the Tsar.

Caught in the Revolution : Petrograd, Russia, 1917 – A World on the Edge by Helen Rappaport – This book concentrates on the revolution itself as it played out in Petrograd, the place and time that most historians have used to look at the Russian Revolution of 1917.

The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin by Steven Lee Myers and Rene Ruiz – Although this is not technically a book about the Russian Revolution, it is a biography that shows the outcome of that revolution.

It is a challenging read, but well worth the effort because the authors certainly do capture the essence of Putin, a complex man who values loyalty above everything else in this world.

Publishers have pulled out all stops to offer refreshing new looks at the Bolshevik Revolution for this, its centennial.