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August 1914
by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenit¸ s¸¡yn
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Penguin Books (1971)
ISBN: B0007AJLFI
Unknown Binding
SKU: 24341
Condition: Collectable Like New
Comments: THE HARDBACK BOOK! Farrar, Straus, 1972. THE UNABRIDGED 1ST EDITION. HARDCOVER W/GILT LETTERING, DUST JACKET and pages are in FINE CONDITION, clean and tight. Rapid shipping w/FREE tracking, AIR MAIL.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
In his monumental narrative of the outbreak of the First World War and the ill-fated Russian offensive into East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn has written what Nina Krushcheva, in The Nation, calls "a dramatically new interpretation of Russian history." The assassination of tsarist prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, a crucial event in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1917, is reconstructed from the alienating viewpoints of historical witnesses. The sole voice of reason among the advisers to Tsar Nikolai II, Stolypin died at the hands of the anarchist Mordko Bogrov, and with him perished Russia's last hope for reform. Translated by H.T. Willetts.August 1914 is the first volume of Solzhenitsyn's epic, The Red Wheel; the second is November 1916. Each of the subsequent volumes will concentrate on another critical moment or "knot," in the history of the Revolution. Translated by H.T. Willetts.
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Customer Reviews
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Astounding...a fantastic read and a stirring protest...
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-11-06
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Having just finished A People's Tragedy, the excellent nonfiction history of the Russian Revolution, I decided to read this fictional account of Russia's stumbling incursion into World War I, a misadventure that in no small way helped precipitate the collapse of the empire. As titled, this novel recounts the events of the fateful month of August, 1914, when Russia rushed unprepared into war against Germany.
With this novel, Solzhenitsyn intended to begin an epic project spanning the entire period--a project he never completed. So, as he warns, this novel is not "complete" in the usual sense; still, it's an epic in its own right. Part *War and Peace*, part *Naked and the Dead*, mixed with the absurdities of war worthy of *Catch 22,* Solzhenitsyn's novel presents a panoramic view of Russia in August 1914 through a wide range of well-drawn characters--both civilian and military, heroes and cowards. And smoldering ominously in the background are the issues that will soon erupt into the revolution that will tear the nation apart.
Solzhenitsyn gives it all a fair hearing. There are just as many examples of human nobility and sacrifice as there are of self-serving human treachery. This is what makes Solzhenitsyn such rewarding reading. He doesn't oversimplify. There isn't a black and white. But always he stands for the individual. In his view, as in Voltaire's, the most any one man can do is to tend his own garden. To act in the right way at the right time, with honesty and honor. One cannot save nations or peoples, but one can save oneself and the person standing right beside you.
*August, 1914* is a wonderful novel full of passion and spirit, protest and poetry. It ridicules and denounces with heartfelt indignation the stupidity of war and the incompetence and greed of those who all-too-often wage it. There may indeed be some things worth fighting for; unfortunately, most wars arent fought for those things.
And while *August, 1914* is an important book, an historical novel with big ideas, it's also very readable, filled with adventure and life-and-death drama featuring characters you'll really root for...or despise. A worthy successor to his great Russian forbears, Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn has created a masterpiece of war literature with this unforgettable novel.
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Really Enjoyable Read
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-08-01
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Prior to reading this book, I had never read anything by and heard very little about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The book lacked the tedium that I often find in rather lengthy books; for being 600 pages it was a page turner. The format was unique and the insight into the Russian front over the first days of the war was interesting. I would definitely suggest this book.
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War and Peace in the 20th Century
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-01-26
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is not an easy book to read--but it's one of the greatest novels I've ever read. Readers who are familiar with the works of other Russian authors (e.g., Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, etc.) will probably more readily appreciate "August 1914" than those who are picking up a Russian novel for the first time. Indeed, I found this novel reminiscent of Tolstoy's "War and Peace." Just as Tolstoy painted a masterful picture of Russian life during the Napoleonic Wars, so Solzhenitsyn paints an unsurpassed picture of Russia on the eve of the Great War 100 years later. Of course, Solzhenitsyn is far less concerned with faith and religion than Tolstoy was--political philosophy is more in Solzhenitsyn's focus.
"August 1914" almost seems to be an appeal by Solzhenitsyn across the years to countrymen long dead, to warn them of the disastrous war and revolution about to overtake them largely because of their own folly. Solzhenitsyn's antipathy for the subsequent Soviet regime is well known. His mockery (in "August 1914") of the revolutionary "intelligentsia" on the Left--for their eagerness to destroy without having an understanding of how to build--is none too subtle, although he does not deny the revolutionaries their opportunity to argue their point of view in the novel. (Ironically, many on the Left were among the earliest victims of the Bolshevik monster they did so much to unleash.)
The autocrats and reactionaries on the Right do not escape his scorn either. The unwillingness (or inability) of the Tsar and his ilk to face the realities of a changing world must of course also be held responsible for the cataclysm about to engulf Russia. But we see Tsar Nicholas II as more than just an empty-headed martinet--instead he comes across (in the latter part of the book) as a well-meaning but indecisive man, who cared deeply for Russia and her people...yet had no idea how to govern as an effective monarch (much less an enlightened one).
In the course of the novel we meet the one man who might have saved Russia--now largely forgotten--Pyotr Stolypin, Prime Minister of Russia from 1906 to 1911 (and arguably the greatest statesman Russia ever produced). Despised on the Left for his heavy-handed (but effective) tactics against revolutionary groups, and derided on the Right for his never completed program of reforms designed to move Russia progressively into modernity (politically and economically), Stolypin was mourned by few on either side when he was assassinated and killed, a victim of the apathy of a clumsy bureacracy and one misguided terrorist. Solzhenitsyn probably does more to mark Stolypin's proper place in history than any other work I've yet seen in English. The heart of the novelist is clearly broken over what might have been for Russia.
It must be said that "August 1914" is a lot more than simply a vehicle for reviewing the political torment of Russia in the late 19th and early 20th century. Solzhenitsyn also gives us an amazingly vivid portrayal of the action and confusion of the 1914 Battle of Tannenberg in the opening month of World War I. I'm not sure any other author, writing without the benefit of actual experience in the conflict that is his subject, has ever produced a more realistic "you are there" feel to his narrative of terrifying battle and mundane army life.
Note that there is a map at the back of the book for helping to keep track of placenames. Also be forewarned that characters will disappear for very long stretches and then re-appear without warning. This is not atypical of long Russian novels--which, at 896 pages, "August 1914" certainly is. Yet if you are at all intersted in Russian history--and would like to read an "insider's" novelization of how "modern" Russia came to be--then I think you will find this book worth the time.
Now, on to "November 1916"...!
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august 1914 - a tragicomedy
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-01-15
6 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
I skim read the reviews of this book on amazon, the lower star ratings shocked me more than the others in certain comments they made.
I am about 620 pages through this book, I have read the earlier draft version previously. I have also read one life in the day of ivan denisovich, cancer ward, the nobel speeches, letter to the soviet leaders and the first ward all at least twice (and very thoroughly). also the gulag (some chapters multiple times).... I am still in my early twenties. I agreed with a point a reviewer made about it being hard to work out which battalion is fighting who etc. The earlier draft has list of all these characters and also the russian army layout (it seems strange that this was left out in the later edition)(...so for me this never was a problem, especially since I am reading the book for the second time, a habit i encourage).
However, this book is by no means contrived, it requires a great deal of imagination to be able appreciate it. I find it strange that people compare this to War and Peace, even though Solz clearly critizes Tolstoy in this very book (as he does in Gulag chapter ascent). ALthough to be honest I haven't fully read Tolstoy's book (I started Anna Karenina, but stopped after about 40 pages a couple of years ago)...(so maybe in form there are similarities, I do not know).
Solzhenitsyn only holds bias in the sense that when one sees mass oppression of peoples one is bound to feel agrieved, and bitterness. If one didn't we could rightly claim that they had ceased to behave like a human being (and more like a rat!).
Be careful what translations you read, some seem far superior to others.
When reading this book one must remember how many different human beings are involved, each different.
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Man's Folly
Rating (4)
Date: 2005-10-30
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Although difficult to follow at times, this work relates the tragedy of war, specifically war undertaken without the proper understanding and preparation necessary to sucessfully see it through. The sections written as a screen play are a mystery to this reader, even though the content of these sections are vital. Particularly touching and poignant is the sheer frustration experienced by the fictional Colonel sent to Second Army, and particularly sad and ironic is the account of Gen. Samsonov's turmoil, from the moment we are first introduced to him, to the bitter and unnecessary fate which is his.
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