John Reed's first hand account of the revolution is a marvelous historical document. Lenin admired it, Stalin suppressed it, and its been smeared by many for it's socialist sympathies and lack of scope.

Reed's accomplish sort of takes precedent over the work itself. Documenting the "revolution" as it took place is an amazing task. Pre-twitter, pre-Reuters, Reed plots the dangerous task of documenting and living in the tense uncertain post-Tsar Russia. The work itself is an accomplishment. Reed documents the provisional government, the Bolshevik uprising, the press releases, and first hand accounts members of different political divisions. Anyone with an interest in the Russian revolution, or political change, would so well to read this work.

What I appreciate is the pain-staking detail Reed has in showing the very dry, detailed orders of the emerging government, and the explosive fervor of the time. Starving, war-fatigued, and trying to form representational government, Reed's work shows the emerging provisional government in a very revealing way. The Russian Revolution itself is so remarkable, because of how the fringe Bolshevisk party took the imagination and hearts of the lower class. The consolidation of power, press and revolutionary change is both awe-inspiring and frightening...especially when we consider the brutal tyranny of the Stalin dictatorship.

At times, Reed's emotions get caught into the work. Most revealing is "I suddenly realized that the devout Russian people no longer needed priests to pray them into heaven. On earth they were building a kingdom more bright than any heaven had to offer, and for which it was a glory to die....". It preserved Reed's own political feelings, and comradeship he was feeling.

Ten Days is a rare historical book doesn't have perspective. It's a snapshot of a lived revolution. It's easy to get caught into a post-Soviet script, but seen through the eyes of the Russian people, it's a humanizing and devastating work.