Ten Days that Shook the World

“I like John Reed because he’s a journalist…and he was on hand to paint this fantastic, vivid picture of 1917. As you know, Warren Beatty turned it into that movie Reds in the 1980s that made revolution fun, sexy and exciting. John Reed debunks the great Soviet myth that October was a huge heroic struggle by the masses. He said: No, it wasn’t like that. The Winter Palace had been abandoned, we just walked in, went into the wine cellar, tried the wines, people started looting things, we wandered around looking for regiments of defending soldiers but nobody was there.” Read more...

The best books on Why Russia isn’t a Democracy

Martin Sixsmith, Foreign Correspondent