Reed John (1887–1920) is an American socialist journalist, author of the acclaimed works Along the Front and 10 Days That Shook the World.
John Reed was born in Portland, Oregon. Mother is the daughter of a Portland entrepreneur, father is a representative of an agricultural machinery company. The journalist's father was a "tough, straightforward pioneer" in the spirit of Jack London.
From his father, John inherited a first-class intelligence and courage. After graduating from school in 1906, he was sent to study at the famous university in America - Harvard. After spending 4 years at Harvard, John became a member of the team of swimmers, cheerleaders, was a member of the editorial board of the student magazine and the president of the student choir. During this period, he took part in the activities of the club of socialists.
John received an excellent education - he became a certified literary critic. Within the walls of the university, he carefully studied the works of socialist thinkers. And already during this period he became the author of deep journalistic articles.
After receiving his degree, John Reed went on a trip to Europe.
Deciding to become a journalist, John Reed began his career in New York. While still the editor of the university satirical leaflet "The Mocker", he showed himself to be a master in a light style. Now he writes stories, poems, dramas. Publishers began to pay him serious royalties, and major newspapers ordered reviews of major events.
Social problems became his strong point. Thus, when a major textile workers' strike began in Peterson, John Reed was in the thick of it. Participated in the Mexican Revolution in 1913 as a contributor to the Metropolitan magazine. An account of this event appeared in the Metropolitan magazine and later in the book Revolutionary Mexico.
With the outbreak of World War I, Reed went to Italy and then to France. Reed did not sympathize with any of the states involved in the war.
Subsequently, the journalist returned to New York, staying there until the end of 1914. In 1915 he went to Thessaloniki, then to Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. Reed found himself in Russia, as well as in Constantinople. These events became the basis of the book "Along the Front", published in April 1916.
In the spring of 1915, as a war correspondent, D. Reed traveled to Russia and the Balkans, making his second trip to the European theater of operations.
John Read came to Eastern Europe at a time when the German command, concentrating the most powerful strike forces on the Eastern Front, was trying to bring Russia out of the war with a powerful blow. At the same time, the settled calm on the Western Front, bought with the blood of a Russian soldier, made it possible for the Allies to prepare for new decisive battles.
A desperate adventure nearly cost the correspondent his life. Supplied with dubious documents, he unauthorizedly crossed the river. Prut and penetrated into the location of the Russian army. Only a happy coincidence of circumstances saved John Reed from being shot on suspicion of espionage.
The author of this book tried to remain in the role of an objective and conscientious chronicler. John Reed tries dispassionately to reproduce what he has witnessed. The style of the correspondent's writing determined a certain superficiality of the presentation.
The author noted that the Russian capitalists, the petty bourgeoisie and the proletariat were "very patriotic", because the paradox of the war was that the fight against the Germans was at the same time a fight against the Russian bureaucracy.
He was especially struck by the diversity and national diversity of Russia.
Soon D. Reed returned to the United States. But even after his country entered the world war in April 1917, the position of the journalist in relation to the latter remained unchanged.
John Reed was a born war correspondent. Danger could not hold him back - he always made his way to the front line. An eyewitness recalled how a journalist in September 1917 on the Riga front near Venden, when German artillery began to bombard a nearby village with shells, he was almost killed - but was delighted.
Throughout his travels, John Reed sought to get to the root of the identified problems, emphasizing their social implications. This was the case in the study of Mexican problems, during the social conflicts in Peterson and Colorado. Returning from the latter, he talked about the massacre in Ludlo - how miners were thrown out of their homes, and soldiers who ran away were shot by soldiers. And, addressing Rockefeller, he said: “These are your mines, these are your hired bandits and soldiers. You are murderers!"
As a result, John Reed was prosecuted - but for anti-militarist articles. This became possible after the transformation of the United States into a belligerent state.
By this time, Reed had returned from the battlefields of the First World War with the curses of war as a social phenomenon - like a bloodbath. In the magazine "Liberator" John Reid published a furious article - and along with other editors was prosecuted for high treason. The New York attorney did his best to get a jury conviction. Reed and his comrades defended their beliefs, and John declared that he would not have fought even under the American flag - outlining the pictures he had witnessed. And … the editors were acquitted.
In the summer of 1917, Reed hurried to Russia, which was in a revolutionary frenzy.
John Read was an active participant in the October events in Petrograd, being an eyewitness to the dissolution of the Pre-parliament, the construction of barricades, applause to V. I. Lenin and G. E. Zinoviev when they came out of the underground after the fall of the Winter Palace.
He told about all these events in his famous book "Ten Days that Shook the World". The book was published in the USA in 1919 (having withstood 3 editions only this year) and was first published in Russian in the USSR in 1923. The work was highly appreciated by V. I. Lenin - in the preface to the American edition. During John Reed's second visit to Soviet Russia in 1919, V. I. Lenin wrote a preface for a new American edition of the book - but with V. I.
Lenin noted the great interest in D. Reed's book, recommended it to the workers of all countries, wishing to see it translated into all languages - after all, it “gives a truthful and unusually vividly written account of events that are so important for understanding what the proletarian revolution is. what is the dictatorship of the proletariat”.
NK Krupskaya also wrote that this book “describes the first days of the October Revolution with extraordinary vividness and power. This is not a simple list of facts, a collection of documents, it is a series of living scenes so typical that each of the participants in the revolution must remember similar scenes that he witnessed."
Until 1957, John Reed's book was published 11 times in Russian: in 1923, in 1924 (4 editions), in 1925, in 1927 (2 editions), in 1928, 1929 and 1930. Almost all editions of the book in Russian, starting with the first one, were published with forewords by V. I. Lenin and N. K. Krupskaya.
Reed selected material for the book from everywhere - so, he collected complete sets of newspapers "Pravda", "Izvestia", all brochures, proclamations, posters and posters.
The following fact testifies to the extent to which the journalist was in control of the situation.
On October 10, 1917, the Central Committee of the RSDLP (b) adopted a resolution written by V. I. LB Kamenev and GE Zinoviev voted against this resolution, and LD Trotsky proposed not to start an uprising until the opening of the Second Congress of Soviets. John Read especially focused on the position of L. D. Trotsky at the Congress.
John Read noted that the strength of V. I. Lenin as the leader of the Bolshevik revolution lay in the fact that he combined intellectual and theoretical power with organizational genius. D. Reed called V. I. Lenin "an extraordinary leader." Lenin possessed, as John Reed wrote, "a powerful ability to reveal the most complex ideas in the simplest words and to give a deep analysis of a specific situation with a combination of shrewd flexibility and daring courage of mind."
The author of the book was inspired by the ideas of the Bolshevik Party, and after returning from Russia, attempts were made in the United States to confiscate the materials collected by John Reed - including through bandit raids to steal the manuscript of the book from the publishing house's office.
After the publication of Ten Days, American magazines did not print a single line of it, and the journalist actually created his own magazine - he became editor of the Revolutionary Century magazine, and then the Kommunist magazine. Reed promoted his views by touring America and participating in conferences, and finally became one of the founders of the US Communist Workers' Party.
D. Reed fought against the American intervention in Soviet Russia - and in this regard, he was brought to trial 5 times and was arrested 20 times.
It was Russia that turned John Reed into a consistent revolutionary. The journalist's desk was littered with books by K. Marx, F. Engels and V. I. Lenin. And John Read became an adherent of the Russian revolution.
As a result, in 1919, Reed came to Moscow and began to work in the Communist International on the merger of the two US communist parties, and was elected a member of the executive committee of the Comintern.
In July - August 1920, he became a delegate to the 2nd Congress of the Comintern. He traveled a lot around Russia, collecting material for a new, third, book - about the everyday life of peaceful construction.
In the fall of 1920, returning from the Congress of the Peoples of the East, he fell ill with typhus and died on the night of October 19, 1920 in Moscow.
The remains of John Reed are buried in Red Square, near the Kremlin wall.
Reed John. Along the front. M., 1916.
Reed John. 10 days that shook the world. M., 1957.
Reed John. 3rd ed. Moscow: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969.
Kireeva I. V. Literary works of John Reed. Gorky, 1974.
Dangulov A. S., Dangulov S. A. Legendary John Reed. Moscow: Soviet Russia, 1978.
