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John Reed was a revolutionary journalist and writer who covered the Mexican Revolution and the Russian Revolution of 1917. He wrote Ten Days That Shook The World and was a close friend of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. Reed died in Moscow in 1920 and is the only American buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Before Hunter S. Thompson, before Woodward and Bernstein, the original revolutionary journalist was John Reed. Born in Portland, Oregon, in 1887 to a wealthy family, John Reed’s life would end just 33 years later in Russia. He is the only American to be buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Red Square.
John Reed saw himself not only as a journalist but also as a writer of poetry and short stories. However, it was his political journalism that brought him to the attention of the world. He has been described as a poet/adventurer and his groundbreaking writing about him was written not only from intellect but also from feeling. It was his political writing that made him a hero to some of the world’s most famous radical writers.
From his early years, John Reed was one of the most political writers. He has written for newspapers such as The New Review and The Masses. He was a well-known figure among New York radical writers and was once described by Van Wyck Brooks as the boy whiz of Greenwich Village. Sangar, his first collection of poems, was published in 1913.
Reed’s political leanings became evident early in his career. He was arrested and spent four days in jail for speaking out for strikebreakers in New Jersey. He soon became involved in organizing strikes for workers and was arrested on many occasions.
In 1910, John Reed traveled to Mexico to cover the Mexican Revolution. Lui wrote about the four months he spent with Pancho Villa and his troops and the fighting that occurred in insurgent Mexico in 1914. The bottom line, Reed said, was that war was about profits.
His next step as a war correspondent saw him reporting on the fighting in Romania, Germany, Serbia and Russia. Many of his reports were rejected because his writings were too leftist. For Reed, there was no revolutionary spirit among the fighters. In 1916, Reed declared his support for Woodrow Wilson, but accurately predicted that there were government groups trying to bring war to the world. In the same year, war was declared on Germany.
It was around this time that John Reed met the woman he was to marry. Louise Bryant was a journalist and feminist. In 1917, Reed and Bryant traveled to Russia to report on the revolution. Reed sympathized with and related to the Bolsheviks and held strong pro-Communist views.
Reed reported firsthand about the revolution and wrote his most famous book, Ten Days That Shook The World. The book told the story of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the storming of the Winter Palace. He also met and became close friends with Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. It was Lenin who pushed the peasants, workers and soldiers to overthrow the government and take control of it.
Reed’s antiwar articles soon attracted the attention of the American government and he was suspected of being an agitator. In 1919, John Reed became the leader of the Communist Labor Party and traveled to Russia to get the party recognized. At the time, it was virtually impossible to travel to Russia from America, and Reed had to hide aboard ship to make the journey. When Reed tried to leave Russia, he was arrested and spent some time in prison on smuggling charges.
Reed was eventually found guilty of smuggling, but decided not to return to America, as he was suspected of being an anarchist criminal. He returned to St. Petersburg and was joined by his wife. He became a political speaker, but his time in prison had seriously weakened him. John Reed was elected to the Executive Committee of the Comintern in Moscow.
In 1920, John Reed was stricken with typhus and died on October 19 in Moscow. His books and his writings tell of one of the most significant periods in history. Like many great journalists and writers, he was part of the story and not just an eyewitness. The film Reds was made about Reed’s life in 1981, starring and directed by Warren Beatty. Ten Years in the Work, is an accurate account of Reed’s life and career as a political writer.
