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[Rev. Rye]

Currently on the last chapter (not counting the conclusion) of A People's Tragedy by Orlando Figes. I've read a lot of works about the Nazis and a lot of Russian novels, but this is the first book on Russian history I've read in a long time. It's a rather thorough take on the Russian Revolution, going from the Famine of 1891 that marked the first stirrings of revolution in Russia to Lenin's death. And what's really striking me is the way Figes portrays a group of people overthrowing a tyrannical system and a Tsar who had no bloody idea what he was doing, but, once it was completed, completely failed at creating a better system, partly because of incompetence, partly because the situation itself was so complicated (there were points, well after the Bolsheviks took power, where the common people thought the Communists and Bolsheviks were actually different groups), and partly because the revolutionaries themselves failed/neglected/refused (it varied between revolutionaries) to take the steps to ensure they could actually achieve their goals and not just take the places of their oppressors.

The peasants and the workers were used to seeing power based on social domination and coercion rather than on the exercise of law. They saw the revolution mainly as a chance to gain autonomy and turn the tables on their former masters rather than as a chance to reconstruct the power system on universal legal principles. Retribution, not a constitution: that was the people's first priority

Or, as William S. Burroughs once said: "It is a familiar pattern: the oppressed love the oppressors and cannot wait to follow their example."

The similarities between what Trump is doing and the Nazi Germany are blindingly obvious, but those who oppose him should make sure they learn from what Russia had to go through a century ago if they expect to end up any better.