A Generation of Revolutionaries ― Nikolai Charushin and Russian Populism from the Great Reforms to Perestroika

Nikolai Charushin’s memoirs of his experience as a member of the revolutionary populist movement in Russia are familiar to historians, but A Generation of Revolutionariesprovides a broader and more engaging look at the lives and relationships beyond these memoirs.It shows how, after years of incarceration, Charushin and friends thrived in Siberian exile, raising children and contributing to science and culture there. While Charushin’s memoirs end with his return to European Russia, this sweeping biography follows this group as they engaged in Russia’s fin de siècle society, took part in the 1917 revolution, and struggled in its aftermath. A Generation of Revolutionaries provides vibrant and deeply personal insights into the turbulent history of Russia from the Great Reforms to the era of Stalinism and beyond. In doing so, it tells the story of a remarkable circle of friends whose lives balanced love, family and career with exile, imprisonment, and revolution.

Ben Eklof is Professor of History at Indiana University. He is author of Russian Peasant Schools and a coeditor along with John Bushnell and Larissa Zakharova of Russia's Great Reforms, 1855-1881 (Indiana University Press 1994).

Tatiana Saburova is Visiting Professor of History at Indiana University, Professor of History at Omsk Pedagogical University, and a Research Fellow at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. Her books and articles focus on the Russian intelligentsia, collective biography, memory, and on the history of photography.