It is generally accepted that 1917 divided the country into “whites” and “reds”. But this is not entirely accurate. The “Red Stream” that washed away old Russia consisted of numerous “rivers”, “streams” and “currents” of various shades - from pale pink to blood red and crimson black. The author of the book, famous historian and journalist Evgeniy Matonin, from all this diversity, chose only five people, representing different shades of the “red idea”. Someone became a “symbol of the revolution” (like V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko), someone did not accept October at first, but remained loyal to it (A.A. Bogdanov and L.B. Krasin), someone entered into the elite of the Bolsheviks, and then was shot by them (L. B. Kamenev), and some (like the legendary Kamo) had an almost flawless biography from the point of view of the Soviet regime.