IN THE STORM

Rhoda Power (born 1890) was a children's author and broadcaster. As a young tutor in South Russia she was caught up in the terror of the 1917-18 Revolution, publishing her personal account in 1919. In 1926 with her sister Eileen, later professor at LSE, she wrote her first (of over 40) children's history books. She then pioneered her own transformational format of history radio programmes for schools, featuring dialogue sound-effects and music, becoming one of the most celebrated and widely listened-to broadcasters on the BBC. She died in 1957 but her scripts were still being used in 1970. Her book Redcap Runs Away (1952) is a children's classic.

“And then the Revolution came.” This first-hand account by a beady-eyed young Englishwoman who finds herself in Russia in 1917, tutoring the exasperating teenage daughter of a rich and privileged family in Rostov, is a real find. Rhoda Power casts her observant and perceptive mind over the family’s inviolate sense of entitlement. When sudden lawlessness, looting and murder arrives it is vividly evoked. Rhoda becomes a cool and detached witness to a bloody, confused and terrifying episode in history. I would so love to hear this future doyenne of Schools’ Broadcasting give her graphic views on Russia today."   Valerie Grove"I don’t ever remember reading a more vivid and believable account of how political resentment suddenly becomes savage bloody revolution as this. Rhoda Power tells her story of the carnage that suddenly engulfs her wealthy host family with enormous calm and clarity. What spirit, resilience and courage she demonstrates throughout her 18 month ordeal. But also how well she writes. She has a natural journalist’s eye for the telling detail, brilliantly conveying the uncertainty of life in the middle of a bloody revolution and devastating war. Her story feels as tragically fresh as if it happened yesterday.  Anne Sebba"For such a short book 'In The Storm' makes a stunning impact. Endowed with a cool head, a sense of humour, courage when needed and plenty of empathy, Rhoda Power met the Russian Revolution's brutal reality head on. Her 'I was there' narrative is alternately chilling and sardonic in its witness to a momentous  episode in the story of our modern world." Jonathan Keates"Direct and simple and honest. She writes about wild atrocities and the anguish of other people: yet her own voice rings out from the mayhem, determined to keep self-control under the horrors." Richard Davenport-Hines"This gripping first-hand account of one of the most momentous periods in history is minutely observed, and told with imagination, wit and strength.  In the Storm provides illuminating, vital insights into the Russian Revolution, for a new generation."  Philip Womack"The great thing about Rhoda Power is that she is an utterly trustworthy and sharp-eyed observer who simply reports what she sees without moralising. She is brave, resourceful, cheerful and never given to self-pity. The one time she almost breaks down is when she watches a Bolshevik funeral procession and realises that the coffins are uncovered, so she can see limbless trunks, heads severed from bodies and crushed faces: ‘All the while there was a sickening odour of putrefaction.’"The book has an excellent introduction by Rhoda’s godson Basil Postan, and a helpful glossary and chronology. As a vivid eye-witness account of a turbulent time, In the Storm is really unsurpassed."  Lynn Barber"

• IntroductionA Note on the TitleA Short ChronologyGlossary of People, Places and PartiesAcknowledgementsI. From Newcastle to Rostov-on-DonII. A Russian Bourgeois HouseholdIII. The RevolutionIV. A Criminal's ParadiseV. A Journey and a HolidayVI. An Autumn of AnxietyVII. Civil WarVIII. Under Cossack ProtectionIX. Enter the BolsheviksX. Under Bolshevik RuleXI. The Anarchists and DepartureXII. From Rostov to the Murman CoastXIII. Refugees in Murmansk