“Adam Sims gives a splendid reading of Reed’s classic account of the seizure of power in Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1917. Reed, an American journalist who was sympathetic to the Bolsheviks, presents a detailed account of these events, which set in motion the dictatorship of the proletariat. Reed himself died in Soviet Russia and is buried in the Kremlin wall. Those who know something of Russian history will realize that so many of the people whom Reed mentions in this account were later consumed by the revolution, which they put into motion. Sims’s baritone is a good match of text and voice. He is suitably expressive but not overly dramatic. His pacing is somewhat staccato—almost strident in places.”
AudioFile
Ten Days that Shook the World is John Reed’s phenomenal first-hand account of the October Revolution, leading up to the storming of the Winter Palace and the assumption of power by the Bolsheviks in 1917.
A socialist journalist from the United States, John Reed was open about his Bolshevik sympathies and used his support to gain access to officials, witness speeches by the likes of Lenin and Trotsky, and observe the tumultuous overthrow of Kerensky’s provisional government by the allied factions, whose conflicts and competing interests are recounted through a polyphony of voices.
Containing some of the most evocative scenes of the era, Ten Days That Shook the World is a stunningly vivid account of one of the most significant events of the twentieth century.
Praise