Comrade Valentine

Rating:
Summary: Important and little known page in history
Review: Most people even to-day at least heard of the Russian Revolution, and of the names like Lenin and Stalin. Numerous books were written on each of these subjects. How did it happen that the great Russian Empire fallen so quickly and irreversibly to an insignificant group of radical revolutionaries led by V. Lenin? There is no simple answer to this question, but one of the pieces of the puzzle is provided by Rubenstein in this book. This is the sinister personality of the quintessential traitor: Yevno Azef, who had the effect on the history of the past century and on our own far beyond of what is usually recognized, and probably far beyond his talents. By the combination of fate and his own ambitions Yevno Azef got close to the leading Russian Revolutionaries of the beginning of century - and they were not Lenin and his tiny band, but a well-established and organized party of Socialist Revolution, known to-day mostly only to the historians of the period. There is little doubt that the Socialist Revolution party was in an excellent position to lead the post Revolution Russia, and little doubt that the world history would have been different had it done so instead of the Lenin's party. Except, there was this insignificant person, Yevno Azef, who betrayed most of the leaders of the Socialist Revolution Party to the Czarist Russian authorities, leading to confusion and disorganization of the party, and opening the opportunity to Lenin. Thus, singlehandedly, Yevno Azef changed the course of the world history. A fascinating story of how this happened, and a portrait of the man himself is very well presented in this book. Interesting times, interesting life, and a real page turner.