John Reed (1887-1920) American journalist and poet-adventurer whose colourful life as a revolutionary writer ended in Russia but made him the hero of a generation of radical intellectuals. Reed became a close friend of V. I. Lenin and was an eyewitness to the 1917 October revolution. He recorded this historical event in his best-known book Ten Days That Shook the World (1920). Reed is buried with other Bolshevik heroes beside the Kremlin wall.
