Modern Russia is a land of intense contradictions. It is a huge country made up of many nations. It has one of the most highly educated populations in the world, and yet it remains subject to centuries old primal conflicts between the rural and the urban; the laborer and the elite. It is a former world power, facing its own disintegration. All of these contradictions seem very familiar in the late 19th and early 20th century Russia that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes in August 1914.Beginning at the start of Russia's ill-fated invasion of Germany in 1914, August 1914 lays out the foundations of the revolution that, through fits and starts, will ultimately swallow one of Europe's greatest and most enduring monarchies. Over nearly 900 pages, the novel introduces us to a whole catalog of characters, ranging widely from laboriously researched historical personalities like Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin and Army General Alexander Samsonov, to stock characters which are used to represent common Russian archetypes from the slow-witted but earnest and hard-working peasant conscript to the shifty and lazy student revolutionary. These characters range freely between fact and fiction, expressing the passage of grand events through intimate personal stories. Tsar Nicholas becomes Nicky, a self-conscious aristocrat more interested in spending time with his family and attending regimental dinners than in reading the daily reports of his goverment ministers. Mordko Bogrov, the murderous revolutionary who single-handedly changes history by assassinating the reform-minded Prime Minister, becomes a self-serving son of a wealthy lawyer who relishes the mind games he plays with the local police, to the point where the actual act of political murder becomes almost an afterthought.August 1914 does not let the reader forget that it is historical fiction, with the main emphasis being on "historical." Solzhenitsyn has spent the better part of the last thirty years researching this book, and it shows. The result is meticulouusly constructed, almost to the point that the narrative stream is lost. Time shifts, often without warning, so that the writer can explore the history of his characters. Narrative structure shifts between the straight description of events, quick shorthand summaries of important moments, and chapters written in screenplay format (belying Solzhenitsyn's hope to some day make a movie from this book). Characters are introduced and then forgotten as the writer loses interest in them. All of this combines to make this a sometimes frustrating read.In the end though, August 1914 is strangely satisfying. It may be disjointed at times, but it is intensely and richly descriptive. We may lose track of many of its characters, but all of them are interesting nonetheless. Ultimately, we may find ourselves having learned more about pre-revolution Russia than we ever thought we wanted to. However, for the student of modern history, August 1914 paints for us a rich picture of a pivotal moment in world history. This is not a beach blanket book. This is a book that demands great effort from the reader. But this effort is rewarded by a fascinating description of a period of time that is both remote and remarkably familiar at the same time.
