This is a continuation of Solzhenitsyn's treatment of Russia's involvement in World War I. The events leading up to the 1917 revolution also begin to play a prominent role. While the first installment, August, 1914 was highly readable and absolutely compelling, I abandoned this one about half-way through.

The book is dense and extremely detailed, and for the most part reads like a dry history treatise. The novelistic aspects and characters of August 1914 play second fiddle. Solzhenitsyn has also chosen to include huge bundles of source documents, transcripts of Duma proceedings for example, within the narrative itself. To give you an idea of what you can expect to find in the book, here is the headnote description of Chapter 7, the origins of the Kadets:

How did the schism begin?--why were the terrorists in such a hurry?--terror as an assertion of righteousness--liberalism's leftward deviation--difficulty of the middle line--original orientation of the Russian zemstovo--how it differed from western local governmental institutions--Alexandr III puts the brakes on--self-limitation in the conduct of state affairs?--Nikolai II and "groundless dreams"--the idee fixe: hold back from evolution--Shipov's interprovincial conference in 1902--the government's flat refusal--differentiation of zemstovo groups--formation of the League of Liberation--its program and tactics..

Yikes--I just turned the page and saw that the above is only about 1/4 of what Solzhenitsen outlines he will cover in Chapter 7 of the supposed novel.

I simply am not the reader for this book. I am sure there is much to admire in it, especially for a scholar of early twentieth century Russian history, the book was too much for me. You can decide if it sounds like something you'd enjoy ( )

*** I received my copy of this book for free through Goodreads First Reads (but I promise that did not influence my thoughts on this book).