Description

"Superb ... A vivid account of one of the most compelling lives in modern revolutionary history" Maurice Casey, author of Hotel Lux

"Abidor captures Serge in all his complexity" - Bruce Baugh, Professor Emeritus, Thompson Rivers University

"A fascinating and provocative biography" - Geoffrey Kurtz, Associate Professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College

Ideological schisms have always been a feature of the left, but for much of the early twentieth century, they could be deadly. Few revolutionary figures managed to chart such a unique course through the turbulent currents of anarchism and Bolshevism as Victor Serge. Today, thanks to his classic memoirs and novels, Serge is esteemed by most segments of the left. But who was this man, who led such a thrilling life on the frontlines of history? An anarchist? A Bolshevik? A Trotskyist? Or did he evolve into something else entirely?

In this vivid account of the life, work, and political evolution of Victor Serge, Mitchell Abidor rescues his subject, with all his contradictions, from the constraints of any single label. Examining the lacunae and errors in his memoirs, the hidden Serge is ultimately revealed for what he was: an unruly revolutionary of both great courage and contradictions.

Mitchell Abidor is a writer and translator living in Brooklyn, New York. His books include May Made Me and he is the translator and editor of Victor Serge's anarchist writings, Anarchists Never Surrender, and translated with Richard Greeman Serge's Notebooks (1936--1947).