A good introduction to revolutionary Russia

The book shows a good range of themes and provides great context in explaining the revolution

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An excellent, balanced summary of the Revolution, let down by the narration

Although breezy and detail-light in places — a necessity given the enormous scope and brief length of the book — all major events and figures are included and appropriately contextualised from a balanced perspective that evenhandedly explains what all parties believed they were doing at the time while not brushing past the intended and unintended consequences. The broad scope here is helpful; while many books on Soviet history treat Red October and the Stalinist purges to be entirely different topics, Fitzpatrick insightfully covers both as expressions of the same revolutionary mindset.

Unfortunately, the book is let down enormously by the narration. Fitzpatrick is an expert in her field — why on earth did the publisher feel her words needed to be put in the mouth of a male reader who clearly has zero knowledge of Russian language or history? If the intent of picking a deep-voiced man was to give the work additional gravitas, this fails every time he butchers a name beyond recognition. In some cases, such as the names he pronounces as "Wit" and "Buck-run", the listener is left to use context clues to figure out whose name is being garbled beyond recognition. The content is still clearly excellent but the narration remains an annoyance throughout.

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Excellent summary

A very accessible canter through the events prior to and subsequent to the October revolution, starting with the 1861 'emancipation' of the serfs and ending with Stalin's Great Terror in the mid/late 1930's.

This is an interesting and thoughtful book and short 'listen' at just over 7 hours (Trotsky's account of the revolution is over 53 hours!). It's informative, though-provoking and includes reflections on the impact of the revolution in Putin's Russia.

A slightly flawed narration - a bit hurried, a bit 'flat' - means it is easy for the mind to wander, but do stick with it - it's a very good account.

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Written by a woman, read by a man

Sheila Fitzpatrick is one of the foremost experts on her subject matter: the Soviet Union and history of modern Russia. Her work is excellent - but for some odd reason, a male actor has been chosen to read it. Hearing women’s voices in academic writing, and particularly in the context of military history, is so rare. It really detracts from the quality of the audio version of this work in the absence of Fitzpatrick herself reading to have a male actor in place of a woman reading the text.

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Decent book, awful narration

I only listened to this book for an hour then had to stop. The book itself is interesting and well written and I will try reading the rest of it. I had to stop listening though because the narration was unbearable...I thought from the sample that it might be okay (it sounded a bit fast but a pleasant English voice rather than one of those American ones that sound like a robot) but it started to grate more and more.

The narrater speaks way too fast and demonstrated no understanding of, or feeling for, the material. Even slowing it down didn't help...he didn't even pause properly for punctuation. How do these books get narrated so badly...where's the quality control? This would have been a pleasure to listen to if someone like Peter Noble, Leighton Pugh, or Sean Barratt had narrated...a real shame.

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