November 1916: A Novel: The Red Wheel II (FSG Classics)

This massive, 1014 page book is the second knot in the Red Wheel. The first knot is August 1914. There are a third and fourth knot "March 1917" and "April 1917" both scheduled to appear in English translation in 2017 in conjunction with the 100th annivesary of the Russian Revolution. The entire Red Wheel is 6,000 pages long. Each knot or node is a critical turning point in history. The author's original intention was to write a 20 volume Red Knot covering the period from the begiining of World War I until the height of Stalin's Red Terror in the late 1930's but only four of the planned 20 knots were completed. In "November 1916," virtually every detail is factual taken from dairies, memoirs or eye witness accounts while the psychological aspects are speculatve. This is what makes the book both a history and a novel. Practically every chapter is written from the perspectve of the main figure in that chapter. Especially interesting are the many chapters written from the point of view of Lenin and that of the Empress Alix who is heavily influenced by if not completely controlled by Rasputin. Lenin and Alix are the central villians in the novel. Fictional Colonel Georgi Vorotynsky is thought to be the voice of the author although he cannot be said to play the normal role of narrator. Solzhenitsyn, living in exile, moved to Rutland, Vermont in 1976 along with his second wife Natalie Svetlova, his mother-in-law and his young children. The writing of the Red Wheel over the next 18 years was very much a family effort with his wife serving as the author's principal editor and critic, his mother-in-law played an important role as a contributor and the young boys were enlisted as typists. The best prelude to reading this book is to watch on-line the BPTV presentation "Writing the Red Wheel in Vermont" delivered on March 29, 2014 in Brattleboro, Vermont. The presentor is the author's son Ignat who is the principal guest conductor of the Moscow Symphony. Born in Moscow in 1972, Ignat grew up in Vermont. His lecture is very interesting focusing on the technical challenges in producing the book. But Ignat excels in answering very challenging questions from the audience. He says his father reviled Lenin, who he regarded as a psychopath, the more he studied him but regarded him as, in a way a genius. One young audience member attempted unsuccessfully to get Ignat to say something positive about Lenin. Ignat said his father kept a portrait of Lenin on his desk for many years. Ignat says that his father saw in Lenin a perseverance, a dogged tunnel vision that allowed him to perpetrate a vast evil, to bathe Russia in blood and is a frightful example of what our species is capable of producing. Ignat says his father found America a positive surprise. When he came to exile in America, he was mostly aware of the then and still existing prejudice of the European elites who say America has no culture, Americans don't read books, Americans know nothing. He found otherwise. His father somewhat overplayed his hand in ctiticism of the West and gained a reputation as a reactionary. He feared that people in the western democracies sufferred from a surfeit of freedom and tended to take freedom for granted and made the pursuit of pleasure paramount to the needs of neighbors and countrymen. But he found much encouragement in the emergence of three leaders--the Polish Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan. He realized the western democracies had a resilience and ability to adapt.Returning to the novel, the book concludes with a brief glossary of the many historical figures in the novel. Precious few had happy endings to their lives. Many died early on in the Revolution or in the Civil War that followed. Other's died in Stalin's Red Terror. After all, revolutions eat their children as Ignat observes. Many others died in exile, primarily in France. This is a challenging book to read but the reader's efforts are richly rewarded.

This is the second volume of Solzhenitsyn's epic "The Red Wheel" and, unlike "August 1914", this book focuses more on Russian society than the war. A number of the same characters return from the first work and Solzhenitsyn takes them, and the reader, to the parlors of St. Petersburg, the homes of Moscow, the trenches, the schools, the factories, the farms, and the legislative assemblies. It is an astonishing work, capturing the mood in Russia before chaos consumed her and showing the last days of a failing society.There are some flaws. Solzhenitsyn continues using the "camera eye" technique that he used in the first novel and, again, does not quite succeed with it. He is better in his use of newspaper headlines than he was in "August 1914." Where he truly fails though is in the numerous essays he includes giving the history of political parties, legislative leaders, even transcripts from the Duma debates. It is a bit too much and Solzhenitsyn is not particularly subtle in his contempt for progressives and society.Where Solzhenitsyn excels is when his characters dominate the narrative. Above all, the powers of redemption and love flow through the book despite the chaos, despite the coming Soviet horror. There are scenes that remain with the reader: a priest and a young officer talking about faith in the trenches; a colonel who comes to St. Petersburg to make a major political impact only to have it undermined by his attraction to a woman, a woman going to confession crying over her dead child, a writer on a train and his assorted notes and musings. This is an epic book to be sure but Solzhenitsyn is truly incredible when he describes the intimate moments of daily life.Be warned. While the book was translated in English a decade ago, the last two volumes have yet to be translated. Despite the book going on for 1,000 pages and a difficult read, you will want more. "The Red Wheel" is not for everyone but those who pursue it will find one of the greatest novels written in the last half of the twentieth century.

I have given the book 5 stars simply because it must of been so hard to get it to print. The author brings the history of his country alive as he sees it. I feel that it is very long winded and at times redundant. I’m not a writer though so who am I to say. Be prepared for long stints of the same narrative being repeated with different words. I have read the first 2 books in the series but I don’t think I will bother with the 3rd. This of course is just my opinion and probably does not matter. Lots of historical facts and data, but lots the author puts in himself understandably he could not have been there for all these meetings and conversations.

Solzhenitsyn carries the Tolstoyan flavour into the brutal clashes of the First World War, depicting with compassion and sensitivity the effects of macrocosmic politics and events on normal people.