Louise Bryant as witness

In our articles titled Rosa Luxemburg as witness (6 May 2025) and John Reed as witness (22 May 2025), we pointed out that even a reader with no prior knowledge of the October Revolution would, upon reading Luxemburg’s The Russian Revolution (1918) or Reed’s Ten Days That Shook the World (1919), readily conclude that Lenin and Trotsky were its principal leaders. By offering a few simple observations on these works, we sought to demonstrate how both texts unmistakably credit these two figures with guiding the revolutionary course.

John Reed and Louise Bryant (1918)

In this article, we shall turn to the testimony of Louise Bryant (1885–1936), the American journalist and revolutionary, by way of her two pivotal works that offer her observations and analyses of the eve of the October Revolution, its unfolding and its aftermath: Six Red Months in Russia: An Observer’s Account of Russia Before and During the Proletarian Dictatorship (1918) and Mirrors of Moscow (1923).

Bryant travelled to Russia in 1917 with her husband, John Reed, and witnessed the most decisive moments of the October Revolution. Amid the dizzying turmoil of those revolutionary days, she worked alongside Reed in the field, and the pair at times divided tasks between them.

One of the merits of Bryant’s Six Red Months in Russia -published a year before Reed’s masterpiece- is its focus on documenting the experiences of ordinary workers, peasants and soldiers during the course of the revolution. In particular, her nuanced and insightful treatment of women’s role in the revolution and the accompanying social changes lends her observations a depth rarely found in comparable works of the period.

Bryant’s Six Red Months in Russia and Mirrors of Moscow rank among the foremost eyewitness accounts of the October Revolution. We believe that both works should be read in conjunction with Reed’s indispensable classic, Ten Days That Shook the World, to gain a fuller understanding of this transformative historical moment.

To the best of our knowledge, Six Red Months in Russia has yet to be translated into Turkish. Mirrors of Moscow, however, exists in two separate Turkish editions, published by Sarmal Kitabevi and Runik Kitap respectively. [*] As we have not read either translation, we are not in a position to offer further comment.

Let us now revisit the simple yet revealing observation we made in our earlier articles based on the testimonies of Luxemburg and Reed -this time through the lens of Bryant’s two books.

Six Red Months in Russia is a comprehensive 300-page account of the author’s observations during her six-month stay in Russia. The book offers a vivid portrayal of the transition from the Provisional Government formed after the February Revolution to the October Revolution, as well as the early months in which the foundations of the proletarian dictatorship were laid -all conveyed with critical insight and meticulous attention to detail.

In Six Red Months in Russia, Lenin is mentioned 51 times and Trotsky 54 times. There is a chapter entitled Lenin and Trotsky, in which the author refers to the two together on nine occasions. Notably, Stalin is not mentioned even once throughout the book.

In Mirrors of Moscow -Bryant’s account of the political and social climate in the Soviet Union after the revolution, which features her observations and interviews with leading political figures of the time- Lenin is mentioned 163 times and Trotsky 74 times. Once again, Stalin is not mentioned even once.

In Mirrors of Moscow, Bryant describes Trotsky as “the unquestionably most dramatic figure produced by the Russian Revolution and its sole great organiser,” and as Lenin’s indispensable comrade-in-arms. She ranks him second only to Lenin, portraying the two as complementary political leaders whose partnership was central to the course of the revolution.

[*] Louise Bryant, Moskova’dan Devrim Portreleri, trans. Yahya Yeşilyurt, Runik Kitap, 1st edition, İstanbul, 2020; and Louise Bryant, Moskova'nın Aynaları: Lenin ve Altındakiler, trans. Piyale Yazgan, Sarmal Kitabevi, 1st edition, İstanbul, 2024.