Дружба, семья, революция : Николай Чарушин и поколение народников 1870-х годов

by Татьяна Сабурова, Бен Эклоф

Николай Чарушин (1851–1937) — народник, член кружка чайковцев, политический ссыльный и профессиональный фотограф, земский страховой агент и издатель оппозиционной газеты. Его биография рассказывает о целой эпохе в истории России, от Великих реформ до революции 1917 года, об исторической политике 1920-х годов и «войнах памяти» в период перестройки. Авторы предлагают по-новому посмотреть на революционное движение в России, показывая значение семейных отношений и дружбы для революционеров-семидесятников, особенности идентичности и коллективной памяти поколения. Обращаясь к истории детства, народничества, земства, провинциальной культуры и политической ссылки, повествование охватывает Вятку, Петербург и Сибирь.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Inna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very wise cultural history of Russian populism. The author concentrate on one couple - Nikolai Charushin and Anna Kuvshinskaya, in order to reflect on the personal aspects of populism. They talk about the particular generational context of revolutionization, about the importance of family to the populists, even while the equality of women was an an integral part of their social and political agenda, about the focus on doing good for the community which brought both protagonists of this book into legal local activism within the zemstvo and as publishers of an oppositional newspaper. In fact the authors' focus of generation and on personal ties within particular communities of the intelligentsia depicts a very different picture of the populists. This picture is much more nuanced that the regular one and reflects of social ties of revolutionaries with legal activists as well as with some of the officialdom.
The authors also reflect on the experience of long imprisonment and exile, while emphasizing the importance of social ties then created to personal and social identity of the populists. The book ends with Charushin's refusal to accept the Bolshevik rule, his work in the local library. and his death in the 1930 after which his only surviving son was arrested and died during imprisonment while his only grandson died due to starvation during the siege of Leningrad.
The authors spend much time discussing an especially interesting point, and that is the battle over historical memory which the elderly populists waged against the Bolsheviks, who attempted to push any political alternatives to Bolshevism into irrelevance.