The White Guard
A gripping tale of Kiev at the time of the Russian revolution following the fortunes of a once wealthy family who are now holed up in a small apartment. The story follows the taking of Tsarist Kiev by the Ukrainian nationalists around which most of the action revolves as our family and their friends are Tsarist. It's a very personal account of the action referencing the disappearance of the Germans, who are meant to be guarding the city, and the subsequent efforts of the nationalists to track down and wipe out all those who oppose them. It's a bit complicated but I guess that the White Guard are the Tsarists resisting the nationalists who want to break away from Russian domination. The brutality of war is shown to some degree and we have little snippets of the ordinary folk who are involved. Kiev citizens are overjoyed that they now have a nationalist in control but all too soon that is replaced by the Bolsheviks, who everyone seems to be against except for those who are at the bottom of the wealth ladder. Our story ends as they sweep into Kiev to everyone's surprise as they'd been told the Reds had only a handful of soldiers. As a note the translator (Michael Glenny) references a "bunch of punks" and this was back in 1971 I think. Also noticed "heavy metal" so I was wondering if those who allocate musical genres have read this book back in the 70s. A book well worth reading and whilst by no means so epic as War and Peace it does in some ways follow violent turmoil from a family viewpoint.
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