The 1905 Russian Revolution

A new English edition of Alexander Shlyapnikov’s memoirs, showing how a working-class provincial youth from a religious dissenter family became a Marxist revolutionary.

These translations by Barbara C. Allen include Shlyapnikov’s memoirs about his childhood and youth, as well as his reflections on the history of the 1905 Revolution in Russia. The book comprises a brief published autobiography, an unpublished memoir of Shlyapnikov’s childhood, a short fictional piece based on his early experience of factory work, a published historical survey of the 1905 Revolution in Russia, and three article-length published memoir-histories about his early activities in the revolutionary underground and his leadership of a revolutionary organisation in the town of Murom.

Barbara C. Allen, Ph.D.(2001), Indiana University Bloomington, is Professor of History at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Publication date: November 13, 2026

List of Figures
Abbreviations and Acronyms

Introduction

1 Autobiography

2 Memoir of Childhood
 1 In Doschatoye
 2 In Murom
 3 Summer in Doschatoye
 4 To School
 5 In School, on the Street, and at Home
 6 Winter
 7 Spring
 8 Summer
 9 In Second Class
 10 Our Street
 11 Summer Holidays
 12 In Third Grade
 13 Trip to Nizhny [Novgorod] and Sormovo

3 To the Factory (a Short Story)

4 The Revolution of 1905
 1 Struggle for Land and Freedom
 2 Economic Development after the Emancipation of the Peasants
 3 Workers’ Situation and Strike Actions
 4 The Revolutionary Movement and the War with Japan
 5 The Government’s ‘Spring’ and the Liberals
 6 9 (22) January
 7 From the January Days to the RSDRP Third Congress
 8 The Peasant Movement
 9 From the Strikes of 1 May to a General Strike
 10 Revolutionary Movement in October according to Police Reports
 11 From October Strike to December Uprising
 12 Counterrevolution’s Crusade
 13 Revolution’s Lessons and Perspectives

5 Underground Work in Murom District, 1902–04

6 The Year 1905 in Murom

7 Red Days in the Hinterland (Murom in 1905)

8 Epilogue

Appendix A: Book Review by Alexander Shlyapnikov
Appendix B: Reviews of Alexander Shlyapnikov’s Works
Appendix C: Excerpts from Alexander Shlyapnikov’s Testimony at His 1933 Purge
Bibliography
Index