palominocorn (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
palominocorn) wrote2019-10-09 10:46 am
palominocorn) wrote2019-10-09 10:46 am
Man is it a difficult read
I picked a book up at the library the other day - The Last Days of the Romanovs, by Helen Rappaport. It sits at the intersection of "gorgeous period clothing" and "family sticking together in the face of great adversity" and "Eastern European history that generally gets butchered by US teachers" so how could I not?
Anyway. It's not a book about the Russian Revolution or communism or anything, but you can't really write about 1918 in Russia without discussing those things.
And like. Holy shit. There's something about reading it in a book, seeing what the Soviet leadership said in their own words (translated, obviously) that hit me in the gut in a way that learning about it in class or seeing it on Wikipedia didn't. I mean. Lenin straight-up used the words "create terror" when talking about how to get the country under control.
Anyway. It's not a book about the Russian Revolution or communism or anything, but you can't really write about 1918 in Russia without discussing those things.
And like. Holy shit. There's something about reading it in a book, seeing what the Soviet leadership said in their own words (translated, obviously) that hit me in the gut in a way that learning about it in class or seeing it on Wikipedia didn't. I mean. Lenin straight-up used the words "create terror" when talking about how to get the country under control.