Telling October: Memory and the Making of the Bolslievik Revolution

A brief review can hardly do justice to this rich study, which combines extensive archival research with an innovative methodology. Arguing that memory is not innate but rather shaped in the ongoing process of its recollection and narration. Corney places the dynamic production of memory at center stage. The approach and argument are largely persuasive.... Telling October deserves a wide readership not only among historians of Russia but also among scholars interested in the history of revolutions and the problem of memory more broadly. It could also be usefully integrated into advanced undergraduate and graduate teaching on the Russian revolution.

Frederick C. Corney's book marks a welcome departure in scholarship on the Russian Revolution. There is nothing like it in the field. Tapping pertinent archival collections, major published works, and representations of October in Soviet cinema, he explicates the mechanisms at work in what he calls ' the group dynamic of memory articulation.' Corney's interdisciplinary approach, his conceptualization of October as memory project, and his familiarity with and judicious use of theoretical literature on memory culture adds enormously to the book.

In his innovative and stimulating book, Fred Corney explores with subtlety and insight the complex and contested processes through which the early Soviet state told the tale of October 1917 and the pre-revolutionary Bolshevik party through festivals, collective reminiscence, local history, film, and other ' institutions of memory.'

In this path-breaking and most stimulating book, Corney examines the history of the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution from a new perspective. Instead of focusing his attention on the events of that year and those leading up to it, the author explores how these events were interpreted during the first decade after 1917.... This theoretically sophisticated book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject and pays special attention to ritual practices, how language was used, and other aspects of memory culture.

In this pathbreaking book, Frederick C. Corney examines the official story of the October Revolution as a foundation narrative of the Soviet state. Through his analysis of films, ritualized celebrations, and history-writing projects, Corney has produced a fascinating study of mythmaking and the institutionalization of historical memory.

Telling October is a work of remarkable originality. It both builds on and contributes to the insights of a young cohort of historians who have looked afresh at the Russian revolutionary experience and its subsequent interpretations. With an enviable sensitivity to language, narrative, and ritual practice, Frederick C. Corney has leaped over the conventional debates of social and antisocial historians and asked the kinds of questions usually raised by historical anthropologists and literary scholars. This is a complex and yet highly readable book.

The events of October 1917 did not become 'the October Revolution' until the Bolshevik revolutionaries who came to power undertook a concerted effort to make it so. This is the thesis of Frederick C. Corney's excellent new book, Telling October.... This is an important book and one well worth reading. The institutionalization of the memories of October had to be carefully managed, as Corney shows. His book is an excellent antidote to both Soviet and Western accounts which simply focus on the Military Revolutionary Committee, as if the Bolshevik party make the October Revolution in ten days. Rather, as the reader will find out, it was the memories of the October Revolution that had to be carefully crafted.