“She might have made her book a skilful and telling arraignment of her political opponents if she could have restrained her quite intelligible hatred and indignation. She betrays her prejudice and weakens her case most seriously in loading on the Bolsheviki the blame for all that Russia has suffered since the beginning of the revolution.” Jacob Zeitlin
− + Nation 110:399 Mr 27 ’20 360w
“When we had finished this long book of Mrs Harold Williams, we asked ourselves why it left us with the taste of the dust of Dead Sea apples. The answer is, we believe, that nothing is so barren as perpetual denunciation. Only a political controversialist could be quite so self-blind as Mrs Williams.”
− Nation [London] 26:402 D 13 ’19 700w
“This book may be recommended as a storehouse of facts, and it is to be hoped that the author will in due course produce another volume, bringing the story down from Brest-Litovsk to the present day.”
+ Sat R 129:62 Ja 17 ’20 540w
“She shows an intimate knowledge of the political convulsions of 1917, and she describes them in a clear and forcible style. The dominant note of the book is amazement that the Russian people, with their many good qualities, could have allowed themselves to be dominated by a gang of scoundrels.”
+ Spec 123:579 N 1 ’19 1450w
“Partisan and patriot Mrs Williams is, and the reader will not find in her description of the storm-tossed waters of the revolution any clear perception of its deeper currents. But the reader will find in her book a useful chronicle of events and an interesting and vivid representation of the political kaleidoscope and of the opinion of no small part of the Russian intelligentsia during that momentous year.” Reed Lewis
+ − Survey 44:48 Ap 3 ’20 200w