From his landmark first-person account of the Bolshevik revolution, Ten Days That Shook the World (1919), John Reed has an important segment that crystallizes the Russian perception of what happened then, and a lot of what is happening now, in the Ukraine.



For many people, history is not forgotten. History actually matters.



"There remained several centres of dangerous opposition, such as the 'republics' of Ukraine and Finland, which were showing definitely anti-Soviet tendencies. Both at Helsingfors and at Kiev the governments were gathering troops which could be depended upon, and entering upon campaigns of crushing Bolshevism, and of disarming and expelling Russian troops.



"The Ukrainean Rada had taken command of all southern Russia, and was furnishing Kaledin reinforcements and supplies. Both Finland and Ukraine were beginning secret negotiations with the Germans, and were promptly recognised by the Allied governments, which loaned them huge sums of money, joining with the propertied classes to create counter-revolutionary centres of attack upon Soviet Russia.



"In the end, when Bolshevism had conquered in both these countries, the defeated bourgeoisie called in the Germans to restore them to power."