Reviewing a book written in the 1930’s and awarded a Pulitzer in the 1960’s is a bit silly. BUT….never let it be said I’m not silly in my review writing. I picked this book up in a used book sale for a charity in town. Confusion being my middle name, I was thinking of “Bridge on the Drina” by Ivo Andric when I bought it and whoops, this is now on my bookshelves. Time to clean the shelves out, so down comes the Quiet Don’s first half.

This is a nice complimentary layer on the history of Russia in the early part of the 20th century, either the Stalinized version or the Westernized version, your choice. (How much Stalin censored is a good position to think about from time to time). Focused on the Cossacks, the book is portioned into 4 parts: Peace, War (as in WWI), Revolution, and Civil War.

Peaceful Cossacks are not someone I want to hang with; if you’re thinking about reading this reflect on how graphic rape, gang-rape, more rape and utter disregard for women will affect you. In their villages along the Don, their autonomy occurs because they are the defense for the Tsar.

In War, I am unsure the term WWI was used, but the horrors the Cossacks faced in the ‘meaningless war’ drove a rift that the Bolsheviks then capitalized on.

For the remainder of the tale, the divide the Cossacks feel from the loyalty sense is where I divined my best enjoyment of the tale. During the Revolution, the Cossacks had to pick between a Tsar now gone and the Red Army. In the Civil War, the Reds and the Whites fought and village to village was torn apart as sides were picked.

I cannot say ‘enjoyable’ would be the term of my reading, but ‘enlightening’ would work as it provided me with another layer in my history knowledge.