Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empireby David Remnick I love Soviet Russia history. It’s my jam and I suspect it will ALWAYS be my jam. But, I have to admit it’s been mostly the Lenin-Stalin era that I’ve sought out: the beginning. Probably because it all plays out like a sad soap opera right up to Stalin’s death. With this book, I decided to skip right to the end and learn about what made it all fall...
The Practice and Theory of Bolshevismby Bertrand Russell This is such a special book to me because it combines two things I really love: Soviet history (particularly the early era) and Bertrand Russell (who is the world’s main man). I tried prepping for this book by reading Bruce Lincoln’s book about the Civil War to have the events fresher in my mind, and this helped immensely. Not that it’s a requirement for anyone reading The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism,...
Lenin’s Moscow by Alfred Rosmer It’s been a hundred years and there’s still so much to learn from the Russian Revolution. I’ve read several accounts of the events (including Trotsky’s hefty 1000+ page book), and I still feel like I haven’t quite gotten a hang of what exactly was happening after the Bolsheviks took power. Alfred Rosmer was a former French Syndicalist who was present for much of the hoopla which followed the October revolution and has felt compelled to...