Memoirs of a Revolutionary by Victor Serge

The Unseen Book Club

Victor Serge (1890-1947), Belgian-Russian revolutionary, novelist, intellectual, political prisoner, and stalwart comrade to countless others, wrote his memoirs towards the end of his life while living stateless in Mexico. An insurrectionary anarchist in his youth, he joined the Bolshevik party in the early years of the Russian revolution. He was a steadfast defender of party democracy and freedom of intellect until his expulsion, and remained in the Soviet Union through imprisonment and exile until his deportation to Europe and ultimately to Mexico.

Memoirs is a stunning and immersive first-hand account of the contradictions and hopes of the revolutionary times he witnessed. Despite the relentless hardship, tragedy he and his fellows endured, Memoirs is deeply compassionate, intellectually rigorous and at times, spiritually resonant. He reflects on the decadent and stagnant conditions of pre-WWI Europe; the hungry yet hope-filled first years of the Russian Revolution, and the creeping horror of totalitarian party leadership. Above all, Serge is unsparingly passionate and generous in his portraiture of his revolutionary compatriots--both his friends and his enemies.

We discuss the weirdly contemporary feel of anarchist subculture of Brussels in the 1910s, the enduring spirit of solidarity, and the consciousness that emerges from a lifetime of shared struggle.

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