Tales of Revolution: Workers and Propaganda Skazki in the Late Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The dawning of radical consciousness is a key episode in the published autobiographies of Russian worker-revolutionaries. Frequently, this moment of epiphany is linked with the reading of some work of underground, illegal literature. Such is the case with Petr Moiseenko, an active participant in the revolutionary and tabor movements from the 1870s, best known as one of the instigators of the Morozov strike of 1885. In his Memoirs of an Old Revolutionary he states at the outset: "I must begin my memoirs from the time when illegal brochures first came my way: 'The Tale of Four Brothers,' 'The Clever Trick,' 'The Tale of a Kopeck,' and the 'Revolutionary Songbook.' From that time my awakening from the old, religious teachings began."