Memoirs of a Revolutionary

Victor Serge (1890-1947), an anarchist and democrat who initially supported the Russian Revolution, was a writer of rare integrity. In his masterwork, Memoirs of a Revolutionary, he describes his impoverished childhood, his idealistic days as an activist in the left-wing movements of Europe, his eventual expulsion from the Soviet Union, his escape from Nazi agents in Paris, and his flight to Mexico as a political refugee. More than a personal memoir, this insider's history fills in the human details that add to our understanding of how mass movements take place, how governments become corrupted, how individuals survive in the midst of struggles between ideologies.