Although there was a parliament in Russia at the time, it had few powers and the masses of the people had no voice. The war effort put a huge strain on the ordinary people of Russia. It was they who bore the costs of the war, the humanitarian effort (fighting at the front) and the economic hardships brought about by the war. Food supplies quickly ran short and the people began to starve. The people of Petrograd rose up and rioted in March 1917, the Tsar, Nicholas the 2nd, quickly abdicated. This was the 1st stage of the Russian revolution, was made by the people of Petrograd without leaders and without a political agenda. They were acting against the extreme poverty and hardships imposed on them by the corrupt Tsarist regime. There was now a power vacuum in Russia. As Trotsky commented " the power fell into the street".
Politicians from Russia's old parliament, the Duma, stepped in and seized power by forming a provisional government. They had no popular mandate and very little support. The Bolsheviks, on the other hand, under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky, had a clear direction and mandate in mind. They believed that the rising in Petrograd and the overthrow of the Tsar had presented them with the opportunity of creating a socialist workers state. The book details the struggle between the Bolsheviks and Kerensky's provisional government as both tried to harness the raw emotion of the Russian people. .
Reed centres much of the action around the Bolshevik headquarters in Smolny, Petrograd. It is a hive of activity, constantly buzzing with intensity and excitement. The author introduces us to the leaders of the revolution, Trotsky and Lennon, in a very personable manner. Lennon and Trotsky are now legendary figures in twentieth Century history. Yet here we see them as ordinary men, weighed down with the expectations of a nation and burdened by the stress of trying to forge a new country from the chaos of the revolution.
