The Politician

Brancovan has been inexplicably unable to fulfill his contract and has been replaced at the eleventh hour. This late change has meant that our normal introduction is somewhat shorter than planned. We do hope, however, that this inconvenience will not detract from the reading of Chernov's fascinating memoirs. VIKTOR MIKHAILOVICH CHERNOV (1873-1952) was a Russian politician and theoretician of the Social Revolutionary Party. During the 1890's he led the Populist groups away from a programme of anarchism, violence, and despair into a closer harmony with the new problems facing Russia at the turn of the century-urbanization, Marxism and industrialization. He played an important part from 1901 to 1906 in several congresses of the Populist groups in the formation of the Social Revolutionary Party, of whose Central Committee he became a member. He insisted that unity would have to be superimposed on the revolutionary movement so that 'we will not have social democrats and social revolutionaries, but one indivisible party' ...»