Book Review - Caught in the Revolution by Helen Rappaport

This book is an account of the two Russian revolutions in 1917, very much based on the personal accounts of those who were there. Historical figures of whom the average person would have heard, such as Tsar Nicholas II, Lenin and Trotsky are present, as are those, whom only anyone with a more in depth awareness of the period, would be cognisant, in particular Kerensky. However the main narrative is derived from the experiences, and opinions of the numerous foreign diplomats, journalists and residents, who lived there, as Russia was torn apart by internecine strife.

The absolute failure of Nicholas, encouraged by his rather unintelligent wife Alexandra, to allow the kind of democratic reforms which would have compromised his autocratic rule, allowed the situation in Russia to become unsustainable, particularly when his armies were being heavily defeated by the Germans. To read of prisoners of the Okhrana, the Tsarist secret police, who having been imprisoned without trial, in often windowless cells, were, when released by the revolutionaries unable to see, and wondered the streets in a daze, makes clear how oppressive the regime had been. In addition vast numbers of the ordinary people had been starving, while the aristocracy continued to live in luxury, so it is no surprise that the dam burst, and in March the Tsar was forced to abdicate, a provisional government taking power.

The fact that normal democratic processes had been stifled resulted in there being no coherent opposition, capable of taking the reins, so an enormous number of different factions vied for power, and the task of governing the immense country was rendered almost impossible, opening the door for the later takeover by Lenin, and his Bolsheviks, who were better organised, possessed, at least in theory, a political programme, and were sufficiently disciplined to hold together. Of course eventually rule by the Party proved even more oppressive than that of the Tsars, just as happened in France after 1789, which saw the Great Terror, in China, when Mao killed millions, and now in Iran, as the undemocratic rule of the Shah has been replaced by a dictatorial theocratic regime.

In addition there are a number of facts made clear by this book, which may surprise those who believed that Lenin was a great revolutionary hero, who was instrumental in overthrowing the Tsar, and making the interests of the people the main concern. Those who formulate that view based on films such as Eisenstein's October, re-edited and released internationally as Ten Days That Shook The World after the book of the same name by the American fellow traveller John Reed, should be aware that Lenin hid in Finland until late in the day, the Winter Palace was never stormed, and the Aurora fired only blanks, not live shells, when launching the uprising. Lenin was a power hungry despot who did not eject the Tsarist regime, but rather the provisional government, led by Kerensky. He is often compared favourably to the mass murderer Stalin, but was in fact cut from the same cloth.

The final lesson is one that appeasement of extremists always leads to disaster. Louis XVI refused to take firm action against the French revolutionaries, and Kerensky did not order the execution of those such as Lenin and Trotsky when it was still possible. How many Russians have died in the century since 1917 because democracy failed to take root, and even now the Russian people still live under a man who emerged from the secret police. The horrors shown in this book should be a warning that needs heeding in our increasingly dangerous world.