We were the first to be fortunate enough to tell people about life under socialism and of the struggle to establish socialism.”

All the other contributors to this volume may justly subscribe to the above together with the author, Alexander Fadeyev, for all of them took part in the Great October Socialist Revolution. Among their number are A. Lunacharsky, the first People’s Commissar for Education, Academician V. Bonch-Bruyevich, A. Kollontai, a well-known woman revolutionary, and the writers Maxim Gorky, Mikhail Sholokhov, Vsevolod Ivanov, Valentin Katayev, and Kornei Chukovsky.

Many of the stories were written between 1920 and 1940, but there is also a large selection of modern writings by such well-known contemporary authors as Vera Panova, Yuri German, and others.

There are stories about the years of underground revolutionary work, the heroic era of the Civil War, and the great revolutionary forward thrust of the people building a new society.

Translated from the Russian
Designed by V. Kuleshov

You can get the book here and here

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Contents

10 Anatoly Lunacharsky. Smolny on the Night of the
Storm
14 John Reed. Ten Days That Shook the World.
(Extracts)
24 Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich. How Lenin Wrote the
Decree on Land
29 Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich. The Arms of the Soviet
State ••
33 Alexandra Kollontai. The First Benefit
44 Mikhail Sholokhov. The Bastard
82 Alexander Fadeyev. Metelitsa Goes on Reconnaissance
102 Vsevolod Ivanov. Letter T.
114 Abdulla Kahhar. The Healer of the Blind
136 Vera Inber. The Crime of Nor Bibi
166 Valentin Katayev. Sleep
175 Boris Lavrenyov. The Forty First
242 A. Zorich. The Insult
262 Kornci Chukovsky. People’s Commissar for Education
275 Konstantin Fedin. Gorky Among Us
296 Maxim Gorky. Kamo
309 Maxim Gorky. Mitya Pavlov
311 Yuri German. A .Walk in the Yard
336 Yelizaveta Drabkina. Meditation
343 Vera Panova. Three Boys at the Gate
V. I. Lenin
The cruiser “Aurora”, a shot from which signalled the start of
the October Revolution. This picture was taken in April 1918
Red Guards