On October 25, 1917 Vladimir Lenin led the revolutionary Bolsheviks in an armed insurrection in Petrograd, an event variously described as the October Revolution, Red October and the Bolshevik Revolution and a pivotal moment in the larger Russian Revolution.  American journalist John Reed was there reporting for the socialist magazine “The Liberator” and witnessed much of the critical action. When he returned to the United States in April 1918 he was strip-searched and interrogated and his trunk full of notes and material was confiscated. After he finally recovered the material seven months later he sequestered himself and wrote his account of the proceedings in a frenzy. It was published in 1919 to a generally positive reception in spite of Reed’s admitted bias in favor of the revolutionaries. It is considered today as probably the best account of probably the most important event of the 20^thcentury. It is listed by the New York Times at number seven on its 1999 list of the Top 100 Works of Journalism and is central to the noted film Reds, which chronicles Reed’s life and work covering the revolution.

This book is a slice of intensified history—history as I saw it. It does not pretend to be anything but a detailed account of the November Revolution, when the Bolsheviki, at the head of the workers and soldiers, seized the state power of Russia and placed it in the hands of the Soviets. -- John Reed