Publisher's Synopsis
Nobody, least of all the Bolsheviks, expected Russia to become the world's first Communist state. It was the random forces of personality, luck and mischance that created 1917. The incredible year of "Comrades" begins with the murder of Rasputin, the mad monk, by an Oxford-educated transvestite and the collapse of Old Russia and ends with the creation of the secret police and the slide into dictatorship. In a narrative style, this book chronicles the February Revolution that began with an obscure labour dispute and led to the Tsar's abdication later in the month, Alexander Kerensky's descent into chaos during the summer turmoil, Lenin's flight to Finland when he thought the game was over and the Red Terror that followed.
