Anna Geifman - Böcker

This fascinating study shows how terrorism as developed and practiced in Romanov Russia has, over the past century, manifested itself as the template for modern and postmodern terrorism as a universal sociocultural, psychological, and existential experience, irrespective of particular political causes, ethnic distinctions, and ideological boundaries.Arguing that Russia is the birthplace of modern terrorism, Death Orders: The Vanguard of Modern Terrorism in Revolutionary Russia uses the nation as a case study of psycho-historical patterns of worldwide terrorist activity during the past century. Key features of early-20th century Russian political extremism serve as models for terrorist experiences in other periods and regions as author Anna Geifman builds a typology of a universal phenomenon.The book shows how, in Russia and elsewhere, terrorists' objectives have degenerated from punishment of individual adversaries and attempts to intimidate political elites to indiscriminate acts of political violence. It shifts attention from ideology to practices that had been previously hidden, ignored, or rationalized, demonstrating that what terrorists say about their motives may not be what actually drives them to brutality. By looking closely at Russian precedents for the general experience of modern political violence, the book helps illuminate many obscure aspects of terrorism today.

Anna Geifman examines the explosion of terrorist activity that took place in the Russian empire from the years just prior to the turn of the century through 1917, a period when over 17,000 people were killed or wounded by revolutionary extremists. On the basis of new research, she argues that a multitude of assassination attempts, bombings, ideologically motivated robberies, and incidents of armed assault, kidnapping, extortion, and blackmail for party purposes played a primary role in the revolution of 1905 and early twentieth-century Russian political history in general.

In the winter of 1909, a political bombshell exploded in tsarist Russia. Scandal swept not only the empire but the entire world with the exposure of the secret life of one man. Newspaper headlines introduced him as a 'twentieth-century Judas,' and since his initiation to the most notorious villains' club, his name, Evno Filipovich Azef, has remained in the Russian tradition as a synonym for scandalous duplicity, unscrupulous perfidy, and criminal provocation. His story is inseparable from the history of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary party (PSR) and the terrorism that plagued the tsarist regime in the first decade of the twentieth century. More than 17,000 people were killed or wounded throughout the empire between 1905 and 1910 as a result of political assassination attempts alone. The use of undercover police spies to infiltrate oppositionist groups was a primary means of combatting terrorist activity. Enter Evno Azef, a man who, before being reviled by Socialist-Revolutionary party leaders as a traitorous double agent, would spend fifteen years inside the PSR, the largest terrorist organization in Russia. A man who would rise to a position of prominence in the party's Central Committee, and become one of the most trusted leaders of its famous terrorist arm, the SR Combat Organization: Evno Azef, Russian master spy. A thorough investigation based on all available documentary resources-available for the first time due to the Soviet government's demise-Entangled in Terror: The Azef Affair and the Russian Revolution sorts out the facts of the case from rumors and legends. Entangled in Terror explores the background and history of the radical SR party and its Combat Organization, the course of Azef's career, his role within the party, and the extent and frequency of his contacts with the secret police. The book evaluates the consequences of the Azef affair for the party, for the Russian revolutionary movement, and for terrorism in Russia. Finally, Entangled in Terror examines Azef's personal motivations: was he seduced by money or did he seek adventure and the thrill of a double life? A gripping expose on high-stakes political intrique, Entangled in Terror tells a powerful, true-to-life tale of power, money, deception, and deadly consequences.

This collection provides scholars and students with a wide-ranging overview of the issues, events and personalities of the two turbulent decades before the 1917 revolution in Russia.