Just Finished Reading: Caught in the Revolution – Petrograd 1917 by Helen Rappaport (FP: 2016)

Russia was still in the war – but only just. The Allies were pushing hard for her continued involvement but tensions were growing both on the front lines and on the streets of Petrograd. After a series of defeats and continued food shortages the ruling elite had finally had enough and demanded that the Czar – tainted by his direct involvement with military planning and his wife’s continued infatuation with the ‘Mad Monk’ Rasputin – step down in favour of his brother who subsequently declined the offer to become the next in line. The coup/revolution was, as these things go, relatively bloodless and hopes were high that the new government could do what the Czar had failed to do – prosecute the war and feed their own people. But riven by faction, indecision and active opposition both from within and without they only succeeded to limp from crisis to crisis. Seeing their chance to drive Russia out of the war they allowed Vladimir Lenin, notorious political agitator, to pass through German occupied territory and return to his homeland. Their hopes succeeded beyond all expectations as Lenin and other Bolsheviks brought down their more Liberal opponents in a more bloody but still relatively bloodless second Revolution. Inheriting a country in chaos and promising everything to everyone they, very much like their predecessors, lurched from one crisis to the next seemingly unable (or unwilling) to quell the rising tide of violence on the streets and equally unable to feed the dwindling number of city residents despite widespread looting and authorised confiscation of goods. As bad as things were they became much worse when the head of the new Soviet Secret Police in Petrograd was assassinated and, days later, Lenin himself was shot and almost killed. Responding with the utmost ferocity to an attack on the heart of the Revolution itself the true terror of the Bolshevik response would shock the world. In the middle of it all were the foreign diplomats, businessmen, medical staff, spies, journalists, well-wishes and even tourists (who wanted to see the Revolution at first hand) who experienced the events of 1917 in all its majesty, chaos and terror at first hand.

Told from the outside looking in this was a fascinating account of the Russian Revolution as experienced by the men and women – largely French, British and American – who stayed behind (for a whole host of reasons) or who simply couldn’t leave (ditto). Using diaries, letters home (both published and unpublished) and archive material from the government’s involved the author weaves an amazing narrative of often extraordinary people living through a very extraordinary time and set of circumstances. I am, by and large, reasonably familiar with the circumstances around the 1917 Revolution but this perspective gave me new insights into the week by week playing out of events. The chaos and random acts of violence (and other random acts of kindness) are pretty astonishing looking back 100 years. What they really must have been like to the people having to deal with them is barely comprehensible. Petrograd in 1917 must have been one of the most dangerous places on Earth at the time and that’s saying a lot considering that there was still more than a year of World War still to run. It’s pretty amazing that any of the people profiled here made it out in one piece – although more than a few left with nothing more than the shirts or dresses on their backs. One case did jump out at me though – one of the British nurses trapped in 1917 had previously survived the sinking of Titanic. I couldn’t make up my mind if she was extremely lucky or equally cursed. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in these extraordinary events.