In the Storm: Caught in the chaos of the Russian Revolution 1917-18

Product Description

In the Storm

December 1916. A young English woman crosses a North Sea patrolled by German submarines on the first stage of her lengthy journey to the Southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don where she is engaged as a tutor to the teenage daughter of a prosperous industrialist. Within three months the Russian Revolution explodes, and she is caught up in chaotic and bloody months of violence.

Rhoda Power’s remarkable record describes with an extraordinary cool eye - and often humorous ear – her growing sense of insecurity and powerlessness as the conventions and divisions of the social order are swept aside in a tumultuous outpouring of repressed resentment, prejudice, vengeful lawlessness, terror and murder. The shell fire and machine-gun bullets of the Battle of Rostov become the soundtrack of her daily life. Death is all around. And the Germans are advancing.

Originally published in 1919 as Under Cossack and Bolshevik Rhoda Power’s account of an ordered existence degenerating into battles raging in the streets around her and of her perilous escape is a neglected classic of outstanding “on the ground ” reporting of events at a time when morality and justice no longer exist. Her words bring home the courage of a remarkable woman; although written over 100 years ago, they have a remarkable contemporary resonance and relevance in today’s turbulent world of conflict.

• A remarkable personal report of a world without law and morality.
• A rediscovered account of daily life in a revolution by a pioneer of BBC schools broadcasting.

The Story Behind...

In the Storm

It is extraordinary how sometimes the past can come racing back into the present, recovering memories long buried. This happened to me when recently I was offered a copy of a book originally published in 1919 entitled Under Cossack and Bolshevik. I had never heard of it - but I recognised at once the author’s name. Why? Because along with many thousands of other schoolchildren, I listened spellbound to wonderful dramatisations of historical events on the BBC - all written by Rhoda Power.

I hadn’t thought about Rhoda Power for more decades than I care to reveal. I knew she had written children’s books (I still, have a copy of Redcap Runs Away). Why, I wondered, should I republish a book Rhoda that had first engaged readers so long ago. What was its relevance today? Then I read it - and knew at once why I had to.

By any test, the retitled In The Storm is an astonishingly modern and vivid first-hand report of one woman’s experiences of the brutal Russian Revolution that overwhelmed Rostov-on-Don where she was tutoring the daughter of a rich merchant. 

Her theme, which could not be more apposite today, is what happens when the rules and structures that enable us to live together - all the essential elements we rely on, laws, utilities, social order - are suddenly stripped away and replaced with chaos where nothing works except for the machine guns, the violence and the threats that surround you. How do you cope? 

Rhoda Power’s remarkable book, brought to me by her godson, Basil Postan, is an astonishing graphic account of what revolution is like. In a word, it is terrifying - and more so when you are a stranger is a land that is exploding around you. This story of a young woman’s experiences of revolution and her hazardous escape is a book that deserves to be recognised for the classic it is.

Francis Bennett