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August 1914 [Paperback]

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)


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Book Description

May 15, 2000 Red Wheel (Book 1)
In his monumental narrative of the outbreak of the First World War and the ill-fated Russian offensive into East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn has written what Nina Krushcheva, in The Nation, calls "a dramatically new interpretation of Russian history." The assassination of tsarist prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, a crucial event in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1917, is reconstructed from the alienating viewpoints of historical witnesses. The sole voice of reason among the advisers to Tsar Nikolai II, Stolypin died at the hands of the anarchist Mordko Bogrov, and with him perished Russia's last hope for reform. Translated by H.T. Willetts.

August 1914 is the first volume of Solzhenitsyn's epic, The Red Wheel; the second is November 1916. Each of the subsequent volumes will concentrate on another critical moment or "knot," in the history of the Revolution. Translated by H.T. Willetts.

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This edition of the Nobel laureate's epic novel of Russian history, which was first published in English in 1972 ( LJ 10/15/72), contains all of the text from the original plus additional material written after Solzhenitsyn's exile from the USSR in 1974. "Screen sequences" indicate technical instructions for the shooting of a film.-- MR
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"A grand meditation on history, a masterly re-creation of people and faces caught up in the sweep of time, symbolized by a rolling fiery red wheel. The work is breathtaking in scope . . . Much credit for its power must go to Mr. Willetts's superb translation."--Gary Kern, The New York Times

"It is now clear that [Solzhenitsyn] towers over all his contemporaries, European, American, and Latin American . . . The greatness of Russia is in this novel as it has not been in any work of fiction since the generation of Dostoevski and Tolstoy."--Lionel Abel, The Wall Street Journal

Product Details

  • Paperback: 896 pages
  • Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition edition (May 15, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0374519994
  • ISBN-13: 978-0374519995
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #282,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

He would bring me August 1914 and ask me to read it to him. Robert Wynkoop  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
The book is almost a 1,000 pages and I advise you keep notes on characters, events and places. Kevin M. Derby  |  2 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
65 of 69 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars I really liked it. . . A Great Book August 14, 2003
Format:Paperback
August 1914
Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I remember when my son was little. He would bring me August 1914 and ask me to read it to him. There were no pictures in this book, but he knew that it was a book that I loved. So we would lie on his bed and as I opened the book and read to him about a world he could only discover in a book. Solzhenitsyn is one of my hero?s, a moral voice speaking against the tyranny of Soviet repression. This book about the battle of Tennenberg in August 1914 is not only a brilliant historical novel, but also a critique of the forces that lead to the October Revolution in Russia. Let?s talk about the story, before we continue the review.

The story is about the entrance of Imperial Russia into World War I. War is declared and Russia in its hurry to honor its commitments to France, invades Prussia. Its army under the leadership of General Samsonov is unprepared for war and Russia suffers a humiliating defeat as the army is surrounded and destroyed. The story is told through the eyes of a Colonel Vorotyntsey who alone sees the coming disaster and vainly tries to avert it.

It is a story of an Army that did not understand modern warfare. Samsonov, a cavalry officer, is used to sitting on his horse and viewing the battlefield; this battlefield, however, stretches for hundreds of miles. Communication is non-existent; supplies are scarce. The Germans, however, understood the new technology and were able to listen in on all the Russian communications. Samsonov makes one blunder after another; he is out classed and doesnt know what to do. With his army collapsing around him, he is lost. Lost in a forest, he ends his life with a bullet as he and his staff are attempting to escape the encirclement.

It is a wonderfully written book. One can hear the hoof beats of the charging cavalry, see the sabers glistening in the sun, sense the terror of the soldiers huddle in their trenches as thousands of shells fall around them and smell the cordite as it drifts across the fields. But Solzhenitsyn?s purpose is more than giving us a history of a battle fought long ago, we wants to expose the corruption of a Czarist Russia that lead to an even greater corruption of the Soviet System. This is a novel about truth and the attempt to conceal it. The old Czarist regime and the Soviet one that followed could only survive by the suppression and the corruption of the truth. No wonder that this book was banned in the Soviet Union.

It is a great book; I have read it at least a half dozen times over the years.

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27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Hello from the world February 5, 2001
Format:Paperback
For lovers of Russian literature and history buffs, this is a terrific book! If you're not a fan of this genre, however, it's going to be ONE TOUGH READ. Solzhenitsyn throws in characters with machine-gun rapidity as well as hundreds of local historical references that will be lost on many folks simply eager to find out about a bit about one of the greatest writers of the century.

That having been said, this one is a winner. Rich description, lovely prose and Solzhenitsyn's obvious love for his homeland are woven into a terrific work that offers deep insights into the Russian view this tumultuous period in their history. For my money, the portion of the book dealing the desperate Russian army and their misguided leaders is Solzhenitsyn at his finest: brutally accurate and never lacking in a deeper understanding of the flawed human beings that made up the events.

This is a must read, but don't make it your first foray into Russian literature or Solzhenitsyn. Try a shorter, less complex work first and then move to this if you like the genre.

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27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars 20th Century Tolstoy explains 20th Century Russia August 22, 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
August 1914 is a historical novel examining the causes for the decline of 19th Century aristocratic Russia to a 20th Century Russia of Socialist experimentation. Solzhenitsyn (AS) picks up his 20th Century analysis of Russia where Tolstoy left off his 19th Century point of view. This is a powerful novel displaying history, as it defines its causality. It grapples with the character of the Russian who is about to face revolutionary change which will deliver the country and its people from an agrarian peasant society to an industrialist monstrous social catastrophe. AS examines how and why Russia went socialist. For students of the French Revolution, August 1914 is another manifestation of how that earlier revolution influenced and occurred in Russia. For students interested in the transition of a culture from 19th Century behavior and values to extreme expiramental 20th political practices, this book is mandatory. August 1914 best demonstrates Henry Adams' forecast that the 19th century mode of life would change radically in the 20th century. AS' dynamo is a war, a romantic urge and a people who are ready for change and have the temperment to change as they did. This is truly an absorbing book and an important book to anyone interested in the influence of Russia in the 20th century. It is a must read for anyone who is interested in Russian history. In fact, it is a great place to start for anyone who is beginning a survey of Russia of history.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars a million soldiers died
Better bring a scorecard. Like a master chess player, the author weaves together dozens of characters set in a pivotal month when a million soldiers died during WW I. Read more
Published 5 months ago by likes good books, music, movies
5.0 out of 5 stars Unreservedly 5 stars.
Readers who like light fluffy works should look elsewhere (otherwise their frustration with this work we lead them to unfairly give it a poor review). Read more
Published 19 months ago by Ed Gehead
5.0 out of 5 stars Review of a book that has not yet arrived
Since the book has not yet arrived I can say nothing about its quality (the book itself, not the novel) or the quality of translation. Read more
Published on April 16, 2011 by E. Hennes
5.0 out of 5 stars Uneven and unpolished, but still superb (details)
There are two primary facets of this novel, for a novel it is in terms of many of the fictional characters:

1. Read more
Published on November 2, 2010 by Patrick W. Crabtree
4.0 out of 5 stars More Russian literature than war novel.
August 1914 does not strive for the same goals as many war novels, and perhaps should not even be seriously included in that category. Read more
Published on June 19, 2010 by 
2.0 out of 5 stars I really wanted to like this book
I was really hoping that I would like this book. I just don't see why people consider Solzhenitsyn to be such a brilliant writer. This seemed to me to read like an unfinished work. Read more
Published on April 6, 2010 by N. Perz
3.0 out of 5 stars August 1914: Bland
Title: August 1914 by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Pages: 622

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: 4 or 5 years.

Days spent reading it: 6 days. Read more
Published on February 15, 2010 by Patrick J. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars Best Translation of an Epic Work
"August 1914" kicks off the epic "Red Wheel" as Solzhenitsyn tries to capture the coming of the Russian Revolution in a series of novels. Read more
Published on June 25, 2009 by Kevin M. Derby
5.0 out of 5 stars Astounding...a fantastic read and a stirring protest...
Having just finished A People's Tragedy, the excellent nonfiction history of the Russian Revolution, I decided to read this fictional account of Russia's stumbling incursion into... Read more
Published on November 6, 2008 by Mark Nadja
4.0 out of 5 stars Really Enjoyable Read
Prior to reading this book, I had never read anything by and heard very little about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Read more
Published on August 1, 2008 by W. Marshall
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