The paper examines the book “Seule en Russie. De la Baltique à la Caspienne” (“Alone in Russia, From the Baltic to the Caspian Sea”, 1927) by a French journalist Andrée Viollis (1870-1950) hardly known in Russia. In the year of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution Viollis undertakes a journey to Russia, its outcome being a travelogue, covering various aspects of life in the Soviet country. The author tries to examine new Bolshevik values in comparison with the traditional values of European civilization. Her book is an attempt of an honest and objective analysis of the Soviet reality. At the same time, feminine perspective adds a special touch to the author's testimony. The analysis by Viollis, devoid of primitive black and white patterns, is of great interest today with the East-West opposition is again on the agenda and is especially relevant this year due to the turn of the Humanities to the topic of the 1917 Russian Revolution.