Reviews for The Making of Three Russian Revolutionaries: Voices from the Menshevik Past

The average rating for The Making of Three Russian Revolutionaries: Voices from the Menshevik Past based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-04-21 00:00:00 Boyce Miller Ignatieff constructs a bittersweet family history stretching back to his illustrious ancestors in service to Russian tsars, through the revolution and into exile, ultimately landing in Canada. Their eminence resulted in ample record, historical and personal. The Russia Album is centered in Ignatieff's grandparents who, sadly, died before he was born. The research and the emotional effort that went into this undertaking couldn't have been easy. Ignatieff brings alive the end of the Romanoff dynasty through real people he is connected to who were actually there. He writes from a North American perspective, which adds to the accessibility of the book. I only wish for more. I'll have to Google him to see if he at least posted more from the family album. Significantly, Ignatieff did not learn Russian from his parents. He is remarkably dispassionate about the wreckage of the Russian Revolution. He is passionate, intimidated even, about getting his family story right. He presents them as flawed, talented, ambitious individuals who were very much a product of their class and time. He contrasts himself as a relatively untethered creator of his future. This book makes me want to read family histories written by descendants whose ancestors stayed in the USSR. It also makes me sad that I didn't get to know my great grandparents, who emigrated from Poland, better. They never really learned English, nor did they bring many documents. No photos. I did make it back to their villages in eastern Poland before my grandfather, their oldest son, died. The change in 3 generations of part of my family is astounding and humbling. They escaped poverty, WWI and communism. Now I have a healthy, comfortable existence in gorgeous, warm San Francisco. Immigrants. We still need them.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-09-29 00:00:00 Newlyn Stephenson This is a very interesting approach to history of the family, by integrating personal memories with memoirs, photos and factual history. Michael Ignatieff (yep, he is currently the rector of CEU) is kinda burdened by his family's historical figures, so he decides to explore their lives. Mostly, he talks about his paternal grandparents, but he goes even deeper in his history and explores also briefly the lives of his uncles. His writing style is very simple and easy to read, making it an enjoyable read.