The People’s Train by Thomas Keneally

To recognise the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in November 1917 (albeit, somewhat belatedly) we read The People's Train by Australian author, Thomas Keneally, who is probably best known for Schindler's List.

The People's Train is the dramatic story of a Russian revolutionary who flees the Tsarist rule in Russia to live in exile in sleepy Brisbane, Australia. There he works to raise the political consciousness of the workers, before returning to Russia to fight alongside Lenin in the 1917 revolution. Based on a true history of the period.

Opinions were quite divided over The People’s Train at our June Book Club meeting, which always makes for a more entertaining evening than if we all agree.

Some members could not finish the book due to their annoyance at the main character, Artem “Tom” Samsurov. They were bored at his political theories and the discussions this entailed. They were also irritated by his interference in the affairs of the Russian community he enters as an outsider, in pre-first World War Brisbane.

Other Book Club members found the book an eye-opener and were fascinated that the book is based on a real radical of the age - Artem Sergeiev - who ended up as a hero of the Soviet Revolution and whose remains are buried by the Kremlin Wall.

The story focuses on Tom, originally a peasant from Kharkov, who escapes from imprisonment by the Russian Tsar after organising a 1905 strike. After a series of adventures he ends up in Brisbane and finds employment as a meat worker.

We learn from his memoirs - which constitutes the first half of the book - that Tom is keen to raise the political consciousness of Brisbane workers beyond the fledgling trade unionism in the town.

After being sidetracked by a romantic entanglement with a local socialist and false imprisonment for murder, Tom eventually decides to go back to Russia to join the Revolution.

How he gets back there and takes part in the overthrow of the Winter Palace in October 1917 makes up the second half of the book, narrated by his travelling companion, Queensland journalist and working class Irishman Paddy Dykes.

Thomas Keneally seems to have done his research thoroughly and events such as the march of thousands through the streets of Brisbane for the 1912 General Strike are peopled with real characters such as Tom Ryan, at the time a Labor politician (later Premier of Queensland). Brisbane street names, suburbs and buildings are identified where the action takes place. In the second half, Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin, all have walk on parts.

To further recall the 100th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution, some of us - ok, only one of us (although we know that several members have read this back in the distant past) - also read Ten Days that Shook the World by American journalist and socialist, John Reed, which is a detailed account of the Bolsheviks seizing the state power of Russia and placing it in the hands of the Soviets on behalf of the workers, peasants and soldiers.

If you can get past the confusing array of Russian names and the myriad political parties - as Thomas Keneally says through a character in The People’s Train there were then “more brands of socialism in Russia than in a lolly shop” - this is quite a remarkable piece of eyewitness journalism.

Here are politicians playing live on stage to crowds of sleepless and sweaty, angry, murderous or cheering people in turn, without the benefits of radio, television and social media (or even many telephones) to help get the political message out to the masses. In the confusion of the times it seems astonishing that the Bolsheviks were able to gain and retain the upper hand with such a radical agenda.

Who is Thomas Keneally?

Thomas Keneally is an Australian novelist, playwright and essayist, probably best known for a book, Schindler's Ark, which was the Booker Prize-winning novel of 1982. This inspired Steven Spielberg's movie, Schindler's List, which won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Keneally had been short-listed for the Booker three times before, in 1972 for The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith, 1975 for Gossip from the Forest and 1979 for Confederates.

At last count he has written 36 novels, 18 works of non-fiction, and five plays. He was born in Sydney in 1935 and on leaving school entered a seminary to train as a Catholic priest. However after six years he left in a state of depression.

He worked as a Sydney schoolteacher and a lecturer at the University of New England before becoming successful as a novelist. Many of his novels are historically based. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1983 and has been declared an Australian Living Treasure.