'To the Finland Station' is Edmund Wilson's novel-like narrative of the personalities who pioneered the ideas of social equality in the 150 years leading up to the Russian Revolution. This is not a history of the political events but rather the personalities of the activists and their life stories. Included are heartbreaking episodes such as the tale of Babeuf who saw the abolition of property as the prerequisite for human equality, and who was guillotined in France along with his followers for passionately declaring his ideas. Also here are early Utopians such as Owen, a successful Welsh industrialist who established actual working communities on early communist principles, including the Owenite commune in New Harmony, Indiana. It was Owen who argued that marriage was also a form of property, and promoted the sexual freedom of women with its echoes a hundred years later. The second half of the book tracks the entry of revolutionary ideas into Germany, England, Austria, Prussia through Lassalle, Marx, Engels - and their image of class struggle as the main dynamic of history. Included are the petty rivalries among the principals, and plain old gossip, such as that Marx - the uncompromising absolutist of world economics - was clueless in his own personal financial life, and dependent on his friend Engels to pay his bills.
The book can be read as another kind of history as well, not only regarding the early Communist theorists as such but also about the writers who were their cheerleaders during the 1920's and 30's. Wilson and other true believers were so wrapped up with the utopian goal that they were slow to come to terms with the dark side of the actuality as it was practiced in Stalinist Russia. So, read Wilson not only as an historic journey of ideas, but also as a record of the sometimes foolish love story between liberal intellectuals and revolutionaries.
For those interested in writing, Wilson's style is unique. There are dense, half-page, complex sentences but nevertheless he manages to convey subtle meanings with elegance.
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