It turns out I share my birthday with Leon Trotsky, a famous Russian Socialist who was Lenin’s right hand man. I’ve read a lot of books by 19th century Russian authors, but I am very uneducated when it comes to the politics of that era and the one that followed. To wit: I don’t know jack about Trotsky. I know a little about the Romanov dynasty from the books I’ve read and a few facts about the Bolshevik revolution from various history classes, but overall, I’m pretty far behind where I should be.

Worse yet, I have two Russian history books sitting on my bookshelf. One deals with the genesis of Russian Radicalism in the 1860s and the other provides a survey of Russian history from as far back as is possible.

I’ve had these books for at least one year and have read no more than 20 pages from each. Oops.