Grebenkin I.N.

The warrior of underground Russia (review of O. A. Milevskiy’s book Steps to the scaffold. Life and fate of Valerian Osinsky, ideologist of Russian political terror. St. Petersburg, Aletheia Publ., 2023, 560 p.). Pp. 219–224.

 

UDC 94(47)(092)(043)

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2026.90.1.021

 

Abstract. The review is devoted to the monograph of the Siberian historian O. A. Milevsky, a renowned expert on the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia in the second half of the 19th century. His new study is the first scientific biography of Valerian Andreevich Osinsky (1852–1879), a prominent figure of revolutionary narodnik movement and an ideologist of political terror. For the first time in Russian historiography, the present research summarizes the previous publications reflecting the circumstances of his life and activities in Russian revolutionary movement. A very wide range of literature is studied and analyzed, which allows us to draw reasonable conclusions about the current state of knowledge of the issue. The study involves a huge amount of historical sources from archival collections. The author uses new methodological approaches to solve specific research problems. Certain provisions of psychohistory and historical anthropology helped in understanding the early period of the hero’s life: family upbringing and personality formation. In defining this sphere, the author examines examples typical of Russian youth, whose childhood and youth passed during the era of Great Reforms. The growth of socio-political protest among the educated part of the population was caused by the processes of emancipation in various social groups caused by the reforms. The author pays special attention to youth emancipation and sees the formation of the revolutionary movement as a direct consequence of the conflict between generations of “fathers,” who embodied the established state order, and “children”— progressive-minded youth. The documents and testimonies presented in the monograph emphasize the uncompromising nature of the confrontation between the government and society in post-reform Russia, which naturally led to the radicalization of the program of the revolutionary populists. Using the example of V. A. Osinsky’s role and participation in narodnichestvo, the article shows the evolution of the views of the revolutionary populists on means and methods of political action acceptable in the absence of dialogue between the opposing parties is shown. The study of activities of the Executive Committee of the Russian Social Revolutionary Party established by V. Osinsky allows the author to come to a conclusion about his outstanding role in the development of the political situation in the country.

 

Keywords: V. A. Osinsky, Radicalism, Revolutionary movement, Revolutionary narodnik movement, Political terror.

 

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