November 1916 (The Red Wheel II) [Hardcover]

Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn (Author), H. T. Willetts (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1999

A vivid and sweeping panorama of Imperial Russia at war on the eve of revolution.

The month of November 1916 in Russia was outwardly unmarked by seismic events--in the author's words, it "encapsulated the stagnant and oppressive atmosphere of the months immediately preceding the Revolution"--but beneath the surface, society, from the Tsar's bizarre and troubled court to the peasants, workers, and ill-led soldiers in the trenches, seethed fiercely. As no other could, Solzhenitsyn makes us experience the whole bubbling cauldron. In Petrograd, luxury store windows are still brightly lit; the Duma debates stormily about the monarchy, the course of war, and clashing paths to reform; the workers in the huge and miserable munitions factories veer increasingly toward sedition. At the front, all is stalemate except for sudden death's capricious visits, while in the countryside sullen anxiety among hard-pressed farmers is rapidly replacing patriotism. In Zurich, Lenin, with the smallest of all revolutionary groups, plots his sinister logistical miracle. With masterly and moving empathy, through the eyes of both historical and fictional protagonists, the author unforgettably transports us to that time and place--the last of pre-Soviet Russia.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In August 1914 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn began his epic account of the events leading up to the Russian Revolution. Subtitled The Red Wheel/Knot I, the book was the first in a projected trilogy. It took more than 20 years for the second in the series to make its debut, but November 1916: The Red Wheel/Knot II picks up in the latter years of the war and chronicles the events between the end of October and the middle of November 1916. Though Solzhenitsyn himself admits that little of historical significance occurred during those few weeks, his novel is jam-packed with enough three-dimensional characters and tangled life stories to more than make up for the dearth of history. Cutting back and forth between the Russian frontlines, the fiercely divided Duma, an increasingly seditious peasantry, and various revolutionary groups, November 1916 masterfully re-creates the bubbling undercurrent of violence and cataclysmic change that would erupt in just a few short months. From Nicholas and Alexandra in St. Petersburg to Lenin in Switzerland, and a whole host of fictional characters in between, Solzhenitsyn brings the people, the problems, and the era to life. --Margaret Prior

From Library Journal

Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970, Solzhenitsyn is perhaps best known for his works that expose the inhuman conditions of life under the Soviet regime. However, his magnum opus, collectively entitled The Red Wheel, is a multivolume chronicle of events leading to the Russian Revolution. The first volume, August 1914, depicted the outbreak of World War I and the Russian offensive. November 1916 portrays Russia on the brink of revolution. Each volume contains characters both fictional and historical, ranging from a peasant soldier to the emperor himself, who appear throughout the work in polyphonic style. Their personal crises are subsumed by the greater dilemma facing the country. Solzhenitsyn is less concerned with plot and action than with ideas, and prerevolutionary politics take center stage. The translation is serviceable but occasionally resorts to cliches that seem out of place. All in all, this long, demanding work will be best appreciated by readers with an enthusiasm for Russian history and politics. Recommended for quality literature collections in both academic and public libraries.?Sister M. Anna Falbo, Villa Maria Coll. Lib., Buffalo
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1040 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux; First American Edition edition (February 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374223149
• ISBN-13: 978-0374223144
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #635,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great story slowed down by superfluous research papers, July 10, 2004

By 

Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: November 1916 (The Red Wheel II) (Hardcover)

I was really excited to see this book had finally been translated into English, having just read the old (and terrible) Michael Glenny hack job translation of 'August 1914.' It was a bit slow to pick up, but this is my favourite writer, so I knew that once it got going, it would be as impossible to put down as all of his other books. Unfortunately that was not the case. I abandoned it in frustration midway through the first of the six miniature research papers, on the history of the Kadet movement, and didn't return to it and start all over again till three and a half years later. This time I didn't give up at any point, though it wasn't easy getting through most of the small-print material in the non-fiction chapters. I really believe that he did want to educate his fellow Russians on a period in their history which isn't well-taught or well-understood instead of showing off the mammoth research he did on this book, but surely there could have been a way to convey that same information without interrupting the narrative a total of six times to bring the reader this tedious material, a mixture of non-fiction narrative and long quotes from the historical figures being discussed. Maybe, like in some of his other books I've read, have page references in the back to what was being talked about there, have footnotes, or a general introduction or afterword on the history behind the story. I know this is his life's work, the second of the four books that were the obsession of his writing life (thankfully he's lived long enough to finish them), but the information would have been gotten across just as well had these six chapters been cut out or had the information presented in the course of the fictional story, the way a good historical fiction writer presents historical events and figures important to the story. It was also hard to keep track of who was who, with all of these names, like Markov, Uncle Khvostov, Nephew Khvostov, Maklakov, Rodzyanko, Protopopov, Milyukov, Krivoshein, St?rmer, and Shipov, as well as who had been dismissed by the Tsar, whom Rasputin and the Tsarina were trying to get rid of, who was a Centrist, Rightist, Kadet, Leftist, ultra-Leftist, ultra-Rightist, a Duma member, or one of the Tsar's ministers. I love Russian history, but this was way too much information to process. The only non-fiction chapters I felt belonged there were the final two, the Duma transcripts, which read more like part of a story than a detached research paper.

The scope of this book is far wider than 'August 1914,' and there are far more characters to keep track of. A number of characters from that book also appear here, in varying degrees of importance. The most important recurring character is Colonel Georgiy Vorontyntsev; here we also get to meet his wife Alina, his baby sister Vera, and their childhood nanny. Since the time during which this book takes place, late October to mid November of 1916, was primarily a time of stalemate, the majority of the action takes place on the homefront. The chapters that do involve the characters in the military don't include any battles. It's hard to not see why revolution occurred when it did--everything on the homefront is going to the dogs, what with fixed grain prices for the peasants, rising prices for the people in the cities, anti-German pogroms, men between the ages of 38 and 41 being called into the military, along with boys who were born in 1898, the youngest possible class who can serve, Russia bankrupt, the strange behaviour of the Tsar, the replacement of the popular but ineffective Supreme Commander of the army, Nikolasha, with his great-nephew the Tsar himself, and the world shutting off its banking with Russia. Everyone was humiliated and angry, from the Tsarists to the revolutionaries living in exile abroad. The Tsar was a genuinely nice fellow, but kept making all of the wrong moves and making revolution even more inevitable.

Some people don't like this book because it has so many different characters, but that's the point--it's showing how these events affected all of these different classes of people, at all levels of society, how each of them reacted to it. It's harder to summarise, and very exhausting to read (I read it in two weeks, surprising given the sheer length), but the ending is really beautiful, a classic final thought. It was worth it just to read the end.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The more things change, the more they stay the same, January 6, 2000

By 

Doug Vaughn - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: November 1916 (The Red Wheel II) (Hardcover)

In November 1916, Solzhenitsyn continues the story she started in August 1914 - the grand saga of conflicting forces that led to the revolution of 1917. At an even 1000 pages, the book would seem overlong except that despite its length it can barely contain the numerous characters, movements, 'plots', conspiracies, and ideas that form the mosaic the author presents of Russia on the eve of revolt.

There are a number of things that strike the reader in reading this book. One is the general description of conditions in Moscow and St. Petersburg at the time: extreme inflation, unavailability of goods, long lines waiting in bad weather for whatever is available in stores, conspicuous displays of wealth by some in the face of extreme poverty by most, capricious strikes and labor shutdowns, lack of any agreement on action among the leaders of the government and a general sense that the government has betrayed the people. Having just read David Remnick's excellent book Resurrection: The Struggle for a New Russia, it seems that not much has really changed there since the early decades of the century. Despite the 'success' of the Soviet Union in WWII, the space race and the huge effort at industrialization, Russia seems to be prey once again to the same despair and chaos that bred the last revolution.

This book works as both a historical summary of conditions at the time and as an engrossing human story of various people (soldiers, revolutionaries, peasants, writers, and government officials) caught up in those conditions. The human meaning, and cost, is never lost in the 'big picture' but is used to help clarify it. Like most Russian literature, this book is filled with talk, excellent conversation and argument, emotional displays of temper and grief, and enough self doubt and inconsistency to make 100 versions of Hamlet. Intermingled with the story also are long sections of historical expositon, often quotes from actual speeches, dispatches, articles and proclaimations. Less interesting than the story of his main characters, these sections nevertheless add a great deal of depth to our understanding of the 'present' circumstances presented in the book.

One of the best aspects of the book for me was the portait of Lenin in Switzerland - fussy, neurotic, and constantly lecturing everyone else about his brand of socialism while living off his mother's (and other's) charity. The subplot relating Germany's effort to get Lenin to foment a revolution in Russia so that eastern front could be retired, is fascinating.

Anyone who enjoys Russian literature will find much to appreciate in November 1916. It is in the grand tradition of great Russian fiction that touches the heart while stimulating the mind. There is never any doubt about Solzhenitsyn's values and beliefs, but he can still create a three dimensional world where even what he hates glows with real life.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A hard read with some compensations, September 28, 2000

By 

Peter Reiher (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: November 1916 (The Red Wheel II) (Hardcover)

It took me a long time to get through "November 1916," even considering its 1000 page length. Solzhenitsyn's novel is a hard book to read because of its fits and starts and frequent changes of tone and plot line. Nonetheless, it has its compensations. Solzhenitsyn does a fine job in showing the reader the uncertainty of a moment just before the world changed dramatically. Some characters see what will be coming hazily, some not at all, none with the clarity that historical hindsight allows. Their prejudices, limited perspectives, selfishness, and, in some cases, dedication to duty lead each character to an entirely personal view of the situation and what should be done to right it. Such a presentation is a useful corrective to the approach to history that views people of past times as dolts for not understanding what seems so inevitable now. After reading Solzhenitsyn's novel, it becomes far easier to empathize not only with the Russians who allowed a tragic revolution to occur, but with people everywhere and at all times who did not see disasters in the making.

As dramatic fiction, Solzhenitsyn's book is much less successful. We are never able to get into the flow of a narrative. His frequent interpolations of long passages providing historical background chop up what passes for the story. The author indicates that readers can skip these sections, but unless one was already familiar with pre-Revolutionary Russia's politics and leading government figures, it would be impossible to understand the novel without reading these passages. Besides, while they torpedo the narrative, they are integral to the book's strengths.

The book works best as fiction in the sections on Lenin's exile in Switzerland and in some of the chapters on a Russian colonel, Vorotyntsev. Vorotyntsev starts with a clear vision that the war must be ended at once at all costs, and tries to take action to achieve that goal, but he gradually becomes confused by the myriad views of those he encounters. Unfortunately, the parts of the book dealing with Vorotyntsev's marriage and affair with a St. Petersberg intellectual are dreary and unconvincing. Clearly these sections are meant to demonstrate how the personal always distracts us from other duties, but Solzhenitsyn's attempts to show human drama in this love triangle underline his failure to provide real depth in his characters.

The book is worth reading if one has an interest in this period of history. Solzhenitsyn does a splendid job of setting the stage and showing us interesting and important corners of Russia just before the Revolution arrived. Solzhenitsyn uses the tools of fiction to achieve effects that would be difficult for a pure historian, yet his book is probably only of interest to those who would be inclined to read a historical account. I would not recommend it for general readers.