Russian Treasures: A historical novel about the Red October Revolution of 1917 - Softcover

For most of his life, Klim Rogov has been working abroad as a journalist. In the summer of 1917, he returns to a Russia devastated by the Great War to claim an inheritance left to him by his father. If he had wrapped up his affairs and left the country earlier, he might have escaped the violence of the Bolshevik Revolution, however, he finds himself tarrying for good reason after meeting an amazing young woman by the name of Nina Odintzova.

Widowed at eighteen, she has the strength and composure to run a flax mill, see off a band of robbers with an unloaded gun, and take care of her grumpy mother-in-law. But Klim senses that she is much more vulnerable than she is prepared to let on: nothing has ever prepared her for the heavy burden she now has to bear.

Klim has a foreign passport that can guarantee him a way out of the anarchy, but he can’t leave Nina behind. The Bolsheviks take everything from them: first their property, then their freedom of movement, and finally the inherent right of each individual to be true to themselves.

If you are a citizen of this new country, you can forget about seeking happiness and a normal life. The new regime in Russia has made no secret of its plans to transform its people into the unquestioning soldier and worker ants that will create their brave new Bolshevik world. The choice is stark and brutal: you can either build communism like everybody else or find yourself in a premature shallow grave.

Attempting to escape the country, Klim and Nina have to confront a fearsome enemy that few have the courage to challenge—a system that is so all-powerful it doesn’t even acknowledge your existence, crushing its enemies like unwanted vermin. If you happen to fall under the wheels of this unstoppable machine, no one will care. However, where there is life, there is hope, and where there is a will, there is a way.

Russian Treasures is one of those precious books that brings the past into the present, and it’s a rare find for readers who enjoy being transported to different places and eras. This novel is based on a huge number of thoroughly researched archive documents and memoirs. You will learn why a small band of communists was able to seize and hold on to power in the largest country in the world and how those people who refused to give up their principles and beliefs survived one of the most dramatic events of the 20th century.