Rostov-on-Don, 1917-1918
From her post as governess to a prosperous middle-class Russian family, writes Stephen Usherwood, a gifted young Englishwoman watched the gradual development of the Revolution.
‘Truth is the criterion of historical study, but its impelling motive is poetic.’ These words of Trevelyan’s are inscribed on the wall of a small library in Portland Place, London. It contains books that once belonged to Rhoda Power, scholar, writer and pioneer of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s programmes to schools.
My work as a BBC producer often takes me there, and I recently noticed on the shelves a book entitled Under Cossack and Bolshevik, published in 1919, but long since out of print. It contained an eye-witness account, written by Rhoda Power, of her experiences in Russia between 1915 and 1918.
It is seldom that someone so literate and so observant finds herself at the centre of a great historical event. In her later dramatic reconstructions of history, she had to rely on reporters. Here she was writing at first hand and being her own reporter. I was most curious to see the outcome.
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