The Degaev affair : terror and treason in Tsarist Russia

A committed terrorist in Russia, an admired professor in America: the astounding story of Sergei Degaev's double life, told in full detail for the first time Sergei Degaev (1857-1921), a political terrorist in tsarist Russia, disappeared after participating in the assassination of the chief of Russia's security organization in 1883. Those who later knew and admired the quietly brilliant Professor Alexander Pell at the University of South Dakota never guessed this was actually Degaev, who had triple-crossed friends and associates while entangled in the revolutionary movement of his homeland. This book is the first in any language to tell in detail the extraordinary story of one of the world's most intriguing revolutionaries, his role in building and betraying the earliest political terrorist network, and his subsequent conventional academic career in America. The well-known historian Richard Pipes uses previously unexplored Russian archives to draw a brilliant psychological, political, and sociological portrait of Degaev. Pipes pursues his protagonist on a twisting journey of changing loyalties and fateful collaborations within the network that provided the model for all modern terrorist organizations. A cunning conspirator, Degaev went on to reinvent himself in the United States as a beloved mathematics professor. Either of his lives would be considered remarkable; that Degaev lived both is nothing short of amazing. Sergei Degaev (1857-1921), a leading political terrorist in tsarist Russia, disappeared after participating in the assassination of the chief of Russia's security organization in 1883. Those who later knew and admired the quietly learned mathematics professor Alexander Pell at the University of South Dakota never guessed this was actually Degaev, who had triple-crossed friends and associates while entangled in the revolutionary movement of his homeland. This book is the first in any language to tell in extensive detail the extraordinary story of one of the world's most intriguing revolutionaries, his role in building and betraying the earliest political terrorist network, and his subsequent conventional academic career in America. Richard Pipes, a leading historian of the Russian Revolution, uses previously unexplored Russian archives to draw a brilliant psychological, political, and sociological portrait of Degaev. Pipes pursues his protagonist on a twisting journey that begins with Degaev's participation in the original Russian terrorist organization, the People's Will, and his rise in the group as others were arrested. Degaev himself was soon imprisoned, but by turning police informant and betraying those he knew in the revolutionary movement, he negotiated his own release. When later he confessed his duplicity, he avoided execution at the hands of revolutionaries by helping to murder the head of the tsar's secret police, Colonel Georgii Sudeikin, following which he escaped to the United States to begin a new life with a new identity. An intricate tale of changing loyalties, fateful collaborations, and a man whose double life can only be described as amazing, The Degaev Affair places the history and nature of political terrorism in Russia in an absorbing new perspective. "Sergei Degaev (1857-1921), a leading political terrorist in tsarist Russia, disappeared after participating in the assassination of the chief of Russia's security organization in 1883. Those who later knew and admired the quietly learned mathematics professor Alexander Pell at the University of South Dakota never guessed this was actually Degaev, who had triple-crossed friends and associates while entangled in the revolutionary movement of his homeland. This book is the first in any language to tell in extensive detail the extraordinary story of one of the world's most intriguing revolutionaries, his role in building and betraying the earliest political terrorist network, and his subsequent conventional academic career in America."--BOOK JACKET. Contents Illustrations Preface Abbreviations Alexander Pell Sergei Degaev Lieutenant Colonel Sudeikin The Police Run the Revolution Sudeikin’s Murder Epilogue Appendix: From the Executive Committee of the People’s Will Notes Index Presents a biography of Serge��i Degaev, a member of the organization People's Will, which was responisible for the assassination of Czar Alexander II in 1881. The Dakota Territory came into being in 1861.