March 1917

The Red Wheel: Node III, Book 1

By: Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, Marian Schwartz - translator

Narrated by: Daniel Henning

The Red Wheel is Solzhenitsyn's magnum opus about the Russian Revolution. Solzhenitsyn tells this story in the form of a meticulously researched historical novel, supplemented by newspaper headlines of the day, fragments of street action, cinematic screenplay, and historical overview. The first two nodes—August 1914 and November 1916—focus on Russia's crises and recovery, on revolutionary terrorism and its suppression, on the missed opportunity of Pyotr Stolypin's reforms, and how the surge of patriotism in August 1914 soured as Russia bled in World War I.

March 1917—the third node—tells the story of the Russian Revolution itself, during which not only does the Imperial government melt in the face of the mob, but the leaders of the opposition prove utterly incapable of controlling the course of events. The absorbing narrative tells the stories of more than fifty characters during the days when the Russian Empire begins to crumble. The anti-Tsarist bourgeois opposition, horrified by the violence, scrambles to declare that it is provisionally taking power, while socialists immediately create a Soviet alternative to undermine it.

In much the same way as Homer's Iliad became the representative account of the Greek world and therefore the basis for Greek civilization, these historical epics perform a parallel role for our modern world.

©1986, 2008 University of Notre Dame (P)2022 Tantor

Masterful genius !

This sweeping collage captures the inertia of the irrevocable chaotic collapse a society which we can still recognize as familiar. The breadth of Solzhenitsyn artistic vision here leaves today’s reader/listener surprised, effected, reflective, perhaps frightened, perhaps heartbroken.

Good book, Terrible narrator

This narrator is terrible. If someone like Stefan Rudnicki had done it, it would have been great.
It's a shame because this is a very important book.

Chaotic, confusing and disappointing

August 1914 was a great book. This one was a chaotic, confusing and disappointing story. But perhaps that is the point - all revolutions are chaotic, confusing and disappointing.

Pertinent

A government fails through stupidity, a monarchy becomes spiritually bankrupt. Scheming intellectuals cause the extermination of millions

Russian Realism at its finest and an interesting time in history.

While the narrator was clear and understandable, I did not feel like he evoked the passions of the Russian revolution. Bland and very American accent.