Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | August 1914 | 1971 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | Buy |
| 2 | November 1916 | 1985 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | Buy |
| 3 | March 1917: The Red Wheel, Node III, Book 1 | 2017 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | Buy |
| 4 | March 1917: The Red Wheel, Node III, Book 2 | 2017 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | Buy |
| 5 | March 1917: The Red Wheel, Node III, Book 4 | 2024 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | Buy |
| 6 | April 1917: The Red Wheel, Node IV, Book 1 | 2025 | Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | Buy |
The Red Wheel is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s most ambitious literary project, a multi-volume historical novel cycle covering the Russian Revolution from the outbreak of World War I through the spring of 1917. Solzhenitsyn structured the work around “nodes,” each focusing on a compressed period of days during which history turned.
The first node, August 1914, was originally published in 1971 and later expanded. It centers on the disastrous Battle of Tannenberg and the early failures of the Russian military. November 1916 follows the political tensions building toward revolution. The massive March 1917 section, published across several volumes, covers the February Revolution itself in granular, day-by-day detail. The final node, April 1917, brings the cycle to Lenin’s return to Russia. Solzhenitsyn worked on the project for decades, and English translations of the later volumes have continued to appear posthumously.