Lev Tikhomirov

Why I Ceased to Be a Revolutionary / Beginnings & Ends Lev Tikhomirov

On February 17th, 1880, members of the Russian terrorist organisation, the People's Will, waited in blizzard conditions for the result of their latest attempt to assassinate the tsar. Among them, a man destined to live in two worlds as few have ever done. Lev Tikhomirov (1852-1923) served as chief publicist for the group, yet when his comrades eventually succeeded in their murderous task, his life was to take a most unexpected turn. In exile in France, Tikhomirov underwent a 'road to Damascus' conversion. He rediscovered his faith and with it, a devotion to his fatherland and the dynasty he had once so fervently wished to inflict murder upon. Now despised by the revolutionary left, he petitioned to return to Russia and became a vocal supporter of conservative principles, producing numerous social critiques and philosophical treatises. Collected here are the first two of these works, Why I Ceased to Be a Revolutionary and Beginnings & Ends, translated into English for the first time with an introduction by K. Benois. It is difficult to explain the obscurity of such an eminently intriguing personality, instrumental in building the world's first terrorist organisation and prophetic in realising where youthful nihilism would lead a doomed generation.