Happy holidays/Christmas and new year to my readers. In terms of views and visitors, 2023 was a big jump from the previous two years. Here were the five most popular posts of the year.
And Quiet Flows the Don
Coming in at first place is Mikhail Sholokhov’s epic novel of Cossacks, romance and revolution. Somebody somewhere must have shared this prominently, because even though I wrote it a good year or two ago it keeps coming in as the most popular post, week on week, month on month. One of these readers contacted me; he is the namesake of one of the characters and some of his ancestors were involved in the Russian Revolution.
Trotsky (2017) – is it accurate? [Spoiler: Lol, jesus no]
Sticking with the Russian and Soviet themes, Trotsky takes second place. I originally wrote this post long before I started the 1919 Review so it’s gratifying to see it still gets a lot of attention. Russian state TV made a ridiculous TV drama series about Trotsky to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution. Here I break down the follies of the first episode.
Sláine
Taking the bronze medal, something a bit less serious and not Soviet-related. At once musclebound and middle-brow, Sláine from 2000AD comics is something rich and strange. Sláine is an axe-wielding adventurer who hails from a fictional past, a setting which draws heavily on Irish and Celtic myth and history. He has gone through many incarnations since his creation in at the dawn of the heavy metal and punk eras. I shared these in 2000AD fan pages on social media, and I get a regular stream of referrals from a Polish comic books forum.
Revolution Under Siege
I’m glad this one made the top five, as it’s the one I put the most work into. Here the views are distributed between many posts (25 and counting) so it’s difficult to get a full picture. But the main archive page on its own got enough hits to make the cut. Two individual posts (‘The Pogroms of 1919‘ and ‘Red Cavalry‘) did make the top ten.
George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
It was fascinating to re-read this book having, since my last reading of it, actually studied the history on which it is based. In this four-part series I did a close and critical reading of this grim and fascinating novel, starting with the assertion that no, contrary to the widespread claim, Nineteen Eighty-Four has not happened anywhere, ever.
Thanks to all my readers. Thanks especially to those who have spread the word. Here’s to an even bigger and better 2024.
The 1919 Review 