Russia Before 1917: Imperial Schemes, Doomed Royals and Young Marxists
NOVANEWS
By China Miéville
A meeting of the St. Petersburg chapter of the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class in February 1897. The whole group was arrested by the Okhranka shortly after the picture was taken. (Photo: Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya)
The following is an excerpt from October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, in which China Miéville sets the scene by providing historical context for 1917, introductions to some of the key figures and the origin of the Bolsheviks.
In the final years of the nineteenth century, the state pours resources into its infrastructure and industry, including an immense program of railway building. Great crews drag iron rails across the country, hammering them down, stitching the limits of the empire together. The Tran...