my experience:
- intro and prehistory: huh cool
- february: this is the coolest thing I have ever read, revolution is possible :bloomer:
- march-september: non-stop leftist infighting
- october: this is the coolest thing I have ever read, revolution is possible :bloomer:
- epilogue: and they did not live happily ever after :doomjak:
overall 7/10, took me way to long to get through the middle, especially like august/september
shoutout to @discontinuuity for the recommendation
it's good! I don't read much history so I found it a bit dry at times, but a very thorough view of the times. @PermaculturalMarxist on the issues of the epilogue:
found it really good until about the last chapter where he kind of just reiterates the Trot point-of-view that Stalin ruined everything and the USSR basically stopped being socialist immediately after winning.
For an intro to the USSR, particularly the revolutionary period, you will want to read October by China Melville (although people do say he falls for propaganda narratives about how the USSR fares after the revolution, so you will want to read other sources for that info).
I liked it very much, but I feel like I have a massive problem with historical non-fiction stuff. I read it, understand it, then immediately forget about it after I'm done. I couldn't tell you the events of the book, even though I can easily narrate the plot of a fictional novel. Same goes for the Revolutions podcast, which I love listening to, but it seems like I simply can't keep track of anything and commit chains of historical events to memory. That's true for most historical narratives for me, and it bothers me a lot, I feel like I never learn anything.
Am I stupid? Should I rethink my approach to this kind of material, or should I just lean into it and tap into my potential for bimbofication?
No you're not stupid. This question actually comes up a lot on r/books on reddit. The best answer I've seen is reading is alot like eating. You probably can't remember what you ate last week but it kept you alive and healthy. Personally I believe you can't really tell how a book changes you but I believe every book a person reads affects them a little bit. When you finish a book you don't need to write a 5 page essay on it. If you enjoyed it then it's worth it. Or you could take notes on or annotate stuff you read. That's also an option if you really want to be able to call back on stuff.
If you really want to remember the material, take notes. It makes reading go slower, but it's basically the biggest thing you can do to retain non-fiction readings. The other one is discussion, but even when I was doing my socialist book club I made sure to take notes on the readings.
Not only do notes allow you to look back over what you thought about when you read it, taking notes is scientifically proven to help retention even if you never look at them after you write them.
EDIT: Take notes IN the book too. Use the margins, highlight shit, put a sticky tab in there. Future you will thank you.
I've learned a huge amount from the Revolutions podcast, but I have to say that yes, a lot of the details fade. If I really wanted them to stick, I could take and review notes, but that would take more time. What I have instead are a lot of general threads, patterns, anecdotes that are particularly interesting or relevant to today's immediate conditions, cautionary tales, and a better understanding of the kinds of people that live through a revolution.
Ten Days That Shook the World is Amazing! There was a copy floating around my town where the current holder would get about 3/4 of the way through and then the person they were propagandizing would be ready for it and then they would give it to them and get them involved with political work. I'm not portraying the story well, but I was the fourth person to get that book in this way and I find it really funny.
