• Memoirs of a Revolutionary
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Memoirs of a Revolutionary

Memoirs of a Revolutionary

by Victor Serge, foreword by Adam Hochschild, notes by Richard Greeman, translated from the French by Peter Sedgwick with George Paizis

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Biography & Memoir History International Literature Russian Literature War
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Victor Serge is one of the great men of the 20th century —and one of its great writers too. He was an anarchist, an agitator, a revolutionary, an exile, a historian of his times, as well as a brilliant novelist, and in Memoirs of a Revolutionary he devotes all his passion and genius to describing this extraordinary—and exemplary—career. Serge tells of his upbringing among exiles and conspirators, of his involvement with the notorious Bonnot Gang and his years in prison, of his role in the Russian Revolution, and of the Revolution’s collapse into despotism and terror. Expelled from the Soviet Union, Serge went to Paris, where he evaded the KGB and the Nazis before fleeing to Mexico. Memoirs of a Revolutionary recounts a thrilling life on the front lines of history and includes vivid portraits not only of Trotsky, Lenin, and Stalin but of countless other figures who struggled to remake the world.

Peter Sedgwick’s fine translation of Memoirs of a Revolutionary was abridged when first published in 1963. This is the first edition in English to present the entirety of Serge’s book. It includes notes and a glossary by Richard Greeman.

READ RICHARD GREEMAN’S ESSAY “VICTOR SERGE’S POLITICAL TESTAMENT”

Additional Book Information

Series: NYRB Classics
ISBN: 9781590174517
Pages: 576
Publication Date:

Praise

Memoirs is a document that is essential, above all, as a denouncement of oppression, an eye-witness account, written in heat and at speed, but with the talent of the true writer, of what it was like to be at the heart of the machine - and to stand up to it. This is the most complete edition yet published in English (Sedgwick's first, abridged translation appeared nearly 50 years ago). How it has taken so long to appear is one of those unfathomable mysteries.... Anyway, here it is at last, and anyone who cares about justice and freedom of speech should have a copy.
—Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian

This book is a fiery testament to political conscience and revolutionary hope.
—Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz

I can't think of anyone who has written about the revolutionary movement in [the 20th century] with Serge's combination of moral insight and intellectual richness.
—Dwight Macdonald

Serge is one of the most compelling of twentieth- century ethical and literary heroes.
—Susan Sontag

The tight links among Serge's traits—his intellectual seriousness, the drive to literary expression, an intransigent radicalism not quite separable from restiveness in the face of routine corruption and dishonesty—are especially evident in Memoirs of a Revolutionary, now available for the first time in a complete English translation...Serge can recognize the range of experience and responses that make up the texture of life in even the most nightmarishly repressive system
—Scott McLemee, Bookforum

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