Alexander Shlyapnikov was a leading member of the Workers’ Opposition (1919-21) in the Russian Communist Party.Barbara C. Allen is Professor of Russian & Soviet History at La Salle University. She is author of Alexander Shlyapnikov, 1885–1937: Life of an Old Bolshevik (2015), and the editor/translator of several other works.

“With impeccable scholarship and deep knowledge of the subject, Barbara Allen's book restores the words and experience of an heroic and tragic revolutionary, Alexander Shlyapnikov, who in his commitment to workers offered an alternative to the hyperstatist turn of the Bolsheviks, and the top-down control of the very people who had made the revolution of 1917 [...] The lessons learned from reading these early writings by a faithful son of the working class belie the easy conclusion that revolutions must lead away from the emancipatory aspirations of the many to the tyranny of a few.”—Ronald Grigor Suny, author of Stalin: Passage to Revolution

• 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