November 1916: The Red Wheel/Knot II

Rating:
Summary: Monumental Wave of Events
Review: Although the second book of the series (following AUGUST 1914 by 20 something years) was written so much later than its "prequel" it still resonates. What a fantastic story!! The slow and inevitable passage of events, the horrors of WW1, the breakdown of authority in imperialist Russia - all combine into an awesome conjunction of people and events.

But it is the characters that make this tale, for the lives of the individuals are what gives this story meaning. The author also presumes that one is at least somewhat familiar with the history of the time. I have always had trouble with the long, unpronouncable Slavic names (shortening them in my mind for readability) but if one persists, it is well worth the effort. Solzhenitsyn is trying to WRITE history, to tell a story that he considers of utmost importance not only to the Russian people but to the rest of the world.

Rating:
Summary: Great story slowed down by superfluous research papers
Review: I was really excited to see this book had finally been translated into English, having just read the old (and terrible) Michael Glenny hack job translation of 'August 1914.' It was a bit slow to pick up, but this is my favourite writer, so I knew that once it got going, it would be as impossible to put down as all of his other books. Unfortunately that was not the case. I abandoned it in frustration midway through the first of the six miniature research papers, on the history of the Kadet movement, and didn't return to it and start all over again till three and a half years later. This time I didn't give up at any point, though it wasn't easy getting through most of the small-print material in the non-fiction chapters. I really believe that he did want to educate his fellow Russians on a period in their history which isn't well-taught or well-understood instead of showing off the mammoth research he did on this book, but surely there could have been a way to convey that same information without interrupting the narrative a total of six times to bring the reader this tedious material, a mixture of non-fiction narrative and long quotes from the historical figures being discussed. Maybe, like in some of his other books I've read, have page references in the back to what was being talked about there, have footnotes, or a general introduction or afterword on the history behind the story. I know this is his life's work, the second of the four books that were the obsession of his writing life (thankfully he's lived long enough to finish them), but the information would have been gotten across just as well had these six chapters been cut out or had the information presented in the course of the fictional story, the way a good historical fiction writer presents historical events and figures important to the story. It was also hard to keep track of who was who, with all of these names, like Markov, Uncle Khvostov, Nephew Khvostov, Maklakov, Rodzyanko, Protopopov, Milyukov, Krivoshein, Stürmer, and Shipov, as well as who had been dismissed by the Tsar, whom Rasputin and the Tsarina were trying to get rid of, who was a Centrist, Rightist, Kadet, Leftist, ultra-Leftist, ultra-Rightist, a Duma member, or one of the Tsar's ministers. I love Russian history, but this was way too much information to process. The only non-fiction chapters I felt belonged there were the final two, the Duma transcripts, which read more like part of a story than a detached research paper.

The scope of this book is far wider than 'August 1914,' and there are far more characters to keep track of. A number of characters from that book also appear here, in varying degrees of importance. The most important recurring character is Colonel Georgiy Vorontyntsev; here we also get to meet his wife Alina, his baby sister Vera, and their childhood nanny. Since the time during which this book takes place, late October to mid November of 1916, was primarily a time of stalemate, the majority of the action takes place on the homefront. The chapters that do involve the characters in the military don't include any battles. It's hard to not see why revolution occurred when it did--everything on the homefront is going to the dogs, what with fixed grain prices for the peasants, rising prices for the people in the cities, anti-German pogroms, men between the ages of 38 and 41 being called into the military, along with boys who were born in 1898, the youngest possible class who can serve, Russia bankrupt, the strange behaviour of the Tsar, the replacement of the popular but ineffective Supreme Commander of the army, Nikolasha, with his great-nephew the Tsar himself, and the world shutting off its banking with Russia. Everyone was humiliated and angry, from the Tsarists to the revolutionaries living in exile abroad. The Tsar was a genuinely nice fellow, but kept making all of the wrong moves and making revolution even more inevitable.

Some people don't like this book because it has so many different characters, but that's the point--it's showing how these events affected all of these different classes of people, at all levels of society, how each of them reacted to it. It's harder to summarise, and very exhausting to read (I read it in two weeks, surprising given the sheer length), but the ending is really beautiful, a classic final thought. It was worth it just to read the end.

Rating:
Summary: A hard read with some compensations
Review: It took me a long time to get through "November 1916," even considering its 1000 page length. Solzhenitsyn's novel is a hard book to read because of its fits and starts and frequent changes of tone and plot line. Nonetheless, it has its compensations. Solzhenitsyn does a fine job in showing the reader the uncertainty of a moment just before the world changed dramatically. Some characters see what will be coming hazily, some not at all, none with the clarity that historical hindsight allows. Their prejudices, limited perspectives, selfishness, and, in some cases, dedication to duty lead each character to an entirely personal view of the situation and what should be done to right it. Such a presentation is a useful corrective to the approach to history that views people of past times as dolts for not understanding what seems so inevitable now. After reading Solzhenitsyn's novel, it becomes far easier to empathize not only with the Russians who allowed a tragic revolution to occur, but with people everywhere and at all times who did not see disasters in the making.

As dramatic fiction, Solzhenitsyn's book is much less successful. We are never able to get into the flow of a narrative. His frequent interpolations of long passages providing historical background chop up what passes for the story. The author indicates that readers can skip these sections, but unless one was already familiar with pre-Revolutionary Russia's politics and leading government figures, it would be impossible to understand the novel without reading these passages. Besides, while they torpedo the narrative, they are integral to the book's strengths.

The book works best as fiction in the sections on Lenin's exile in Switzerland and in some of the chapters on a Russian colonel, Vorotyntsev. Vorotyntsev starts with a clear vision that the war must be ended at once at all costs, and tries to take action to achieve that goal, but he gradually becomes confused by the myriad views of those he encounters. Unfortunately, the parts of the book dealing with Vorotyntsev's marriage and affair with a St. Petersberg intellectual are dreary and unconvincing. Clearly these sections are meant to demonstrate how the personal always distracts us from other duties, but Solzhenitsyn's attempts to show human drama in this love triangle underline his failure to provide real depth in his characters.

The book is worth reading if one has an interest in this period of history. Solzhenitsyn does a splendid job of setting the stage and showing us interesting and important corners of Russia just before the Revolution arrived. Solzhenitsyn uses the tools of fiction to achieve effects that would be difficult for a pure historian, yet his book is probably only of interest to those who would be inclined to read a historical account. I would not recommend it for general readers.