John Reed, born on this day in 1887, was an American journalist, poet, and communist activist. Reed served as a war correspondent, covered strikes, interviewed Pancho Villa, and was an eyewitness to the October Revolution.
Reed was raised in an upper-class environment in the Pacific Northwest during the turn of the 20th century. He graduated from Harvard and showed interest in social issues, attending socialist club meetings. Three years after completing his studies he landed a job with the New York-based leftist magazine The Masses, which published articles by prominent radicals of the time.
As a determined champion of social justice, Reed covered strikes by silk mill workers in New Jersey and coal miners in Colorado. He was then sent to report on the Mexican revolution (1910 - 1920). He was appalled by the exploitation of laborers and Washington’s policy towards Mexico. "The United States Government is really headed toward the policy of ‘civilizing 'em with a Krag’ [a rifle used by American troops] - a process which consists in forcing upon alien races with alien temperaments our own Grand Democratic Institutions: I refer to Trust Government, Unemployment, and Wage Slavery," Reed wrote.
His series on Mexico, later published as a book titled Insurgent Mexico, enforced Reed's reputation as a war correspondent. When World War I broke out in Europe Reed traveled to the Continent on two occasions, resulting in his second book - The War in Eastern Europe.
However, his most famous work - Ten Days That Shook The World - was not about war, but rebellion. It was published in 1919 and described the events of the Russian revolution. Reed visited Russia in August 1917 and witnessed how the Bolsheviks seized power. He welcomed the uprising and was an enthusiastic supporter of the new socialist regime. "So, with the crash of artillery, in the dark, with hatred, and fear, and reckless daring, new Russia was being born," he wrote.
He met the two main leaders of the Bolshevik uprising in person, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, and was a big fan of the Bolshevik party. "Instead of being a destructive force, it seems to me that the Bolsheviki were the only party in Russia with a constructive program and the power to impose it on the country," Reed wrote in Ten Days That Shook The World.
The book was also widely praised by the public - even American diplomat George F. Kennan, who had no sympathy towards the Soviets - gave it a positive review: "Reed’s account of the events of that time rises above every other contemporary record for its literary power, its penetration, its command of detail."
Reed subsequently made a trip back to the U.S., where he vehemently defended the new Soviet Republic and was arrested three times, the last for violating the Sedition Act. After being acquitted, Reed returned to the USSR and again met with Lenin and Trotsky.
Reed died from spotted typhus while trying to return to the United States in 1920. He was given a state funeral and buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
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