This book presents the 1917 Russian Revolution, as reported by eye-witness accounts, assembled into a cogent narrative by Helen Rappaport. The author relies on letters, journals, and articles from diplomats, journalists, medical professionals, businessmen, spies, and others. The account ranges through topics such as politics, the ongoing war with Germany and Austria-Hungary, how order was restored (or not), the estimated numbers of casualties, and how these people dealt with the aftermath. There was a general lack of provisions for the populace – food, clothing, and shelter. The streets were a dangerous place to be.

It reports on the February Revolution in vivid terms depicting the violence and brutality. Mobs were rampant and revenge was taken on anyone even suspected to be supportive of the government, particularly the police. Once everything settled down, there was a brief period of optimism, which only lasted until October, when the Bolsheviks took over. The leader of the provisional government, Kerensky, could have potentially changed the course of history by arresting Lenin and Trotsky, but, of course, this did not occur. Rappaport’s commentary on this brief period is one of the highlights of the book.

The book is focused, intentionally, on what was occurring in Petrograd (St Petersburg). The available documentation is primarily from the perspective of Americans, French, Dutch, and British visitors. It would have been interesting to obtain more comprehensive view by including Russian sources. It sometimes feels like a scattered approach, providing lots of recollections from many individuals, but provides a distinct perspective on this period of Russian history. ( )

Caught in the Revolution: Petrograd, Russia, 1917 – A World on the Edge by Helen Rappaport is a first-hand account of the revolutions in Russia. Rappaport attended Leeds University with the intention of joining the Foreign Office. She changed her mind and became an actress. She, later, became a full-time writer in 1998 and has written several books on Russian history and Victorian history. Her work on Lenin caused a stir when she proposed that he died of syphilis rather than a stroke.

Rappaport wrote the very successful The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandria in 2014. Her clear and narrative style writing makes for good reading and she is not hesitant to document her work. Caught in the Revolution is composed of first-hand accounts from the British and American diplomatic communities as well as the business community. The foreign communities present their personal experiences of the revolution in the streets of Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg but changed to lose the German name), Since 1914 the German community had left with the outbreak of war and Russian alliance with France.

Life in Petrograd had declined since the start of the war. The lines for bread had grown to five hour waits in the sub-zero temperatures. White bread had steadily been turning grayer as additives started replacing the flour. The Russian government tried to assure the population that there was no shortage of flour and that any shortage was a result of hoarding. The people were losing faith in the government. Prices were rising and shortages in other goods were growing. Despite the shortages seen on the streets and citizens in rags, the elites, however, still lived well and had the opera and other upper-class entertainment including champagne.

Violence in the streets came and grew almost by accident. It was slow in escalating, but the bread shortage was the major reason for the unrest. The First World War was taking its toll on the front and at home. The people’s bread was being used to feed horses at the front. There was no talk of revolution at the start of the protests. The cossacks were called out to put down the unrest in the streets, however, they did not act against the crowds. Normally, the cossacks would have brutally put down the unrest. When they didn’t, a woman asked why weren’t they attacking. A cossack replied, “We are hungry too.” The military slowly started to defect. It was the police that attacked the crowds viciously, even resorting to indiscriminate machine gunning of the crowds from rooftops. The police even resorted to dressing in cossack and military uniforms to give the illusion of military support for the Czar.

The Nicholas abdicated and the Kerensky faction moved to join the various factions in forming a provisional government that took over governing the nation. Kerensky served as Minister of Justice (ended the death penalty) and Minister of War. He didn’t follow the will of the people and continued to fight the disastrous war on the Eastern Front. Lenin and Trotsky took most of Kerensky’s early popular support and the second revolution that year began.

Rappaport first-hand accounts of what was happening in the streets of Petrograd add much to the history of the Russian revolutions. Personal descriptions of the fighting in the streets and even the speeches of Lenin add an important feel to the revolution. Most of the first-hand accounts came from US and British citizens who were not fighting for one side or another. They offer an unbiased look at the fall of one the great powers of Europe. Excellent reading.
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Väga huvitav käsitlus revolutsioonide keerisesse sattunud välisdiplomaatide, -ajakirjanike ja -ärimeeste pilgu läbi. Sekka ka seiklejaid ja aferiste, mõni litsakam, teine jälle puhta võitlev feminist. Meeletu töö, et kõik need avaldatud ja avaldamata materjalid läbi tuustida ja kokku kirjutada. Korralik viiteaparatuur. Hästi tõlgitud ja toimetatud. Arvestades materjali spetsiifikat ei ole ka autoril vene keele oskus vajalik - allikad ongi ju pigem inglise ja prantsuse keeles. Kindlasti ka saksa keeles, aga neid autor ei kasuta. ( )

I decided to read this because it promised a wealth of information about what Petrograd was like during the revolution, and that's all grist for the mill of a novel I've been working on forever. But I got so caught up in the narrative that I kept reading well past the point where there was anything pertinent to my research, and I found myself thinking "What if I set the story a bit later? A month? Six months?" There's so much going on, and Rappaport gives such extensive detail about the expatriate and diplomatic community in Petrograd at the time that it opened up a whole lot more possibilities to me. It taught me that life there was both less and more fraught in the early days of the February revolution. No one was quite certain what was going on, so there were spontaneous marches, and actions. There would be a fight between demonstrators and cossacks on one street, and on the next, people would be quietly shoveling snow.
Rappaport details how the mood changed as Lenin and the Bolsheviks took hold of both the city and the country by challenging and ultimately tearing power away from Kerensky and the Duma. While the February revolution was short, and though not bloodless, it nevertheless allowed much of life in the city to go on as before. But as time passed, simmering anger boiled over, and the real purges began. Foreign residents of Petrograd, who had thought to remain there after February of 1917, found themselves fleeing the country a year later.

This is a view of the several revolutions in Russia which made up one great change, as seen through the eyes of foreign diplomats, journalists, and business people. It's enlightening, fascinating, and ultimately does keep us somewhat at arm's length from the Russian people, and those among them who were jockeying for power and position in the gaps created by the fall, first of the Tsar and then of the Duma.

Rappaport has produced a number of books about the revolution and each seems to have a quite specific focus. If you're looking for a good overview, this isn't the place to begin. It's a good resource if you're already a student of that history, but not as a broad history of the events of those years. ( )

This opened up the Russian Revolution to me in ways that other books haven't. I think it's because the people telling the story are outsiders, non-Russians, yet most of them people who had been in Russia for awhile, many part of the diplomatic staffs, and so it was easy for me to imagine myself through their eyes.

I really enjoy the way Rappaport weaved the stories and accounts together to make a compelling and chilling tale. Great book! ( )