author
S. P. (Sergeĭ Petrovich) Melʹgunov
1879–1956
A sharp-eyed historian and public writer, he became one of the memorable émigré voices on the Russian Revolution and Civil War. His books are known for their urgency, moral seriousness, and close attention to the violence of the era.
1 Audiobook
The red terror in Russia
by S. P. (Sergeĭ Petrovich) Melʹgunov
About the author
Born in Moscow in 1879, Sergeĭ Petrovich Melʹgunov was a Russian historian, publisher, and political writer. He is best remembered for his anti-Bolshevik works on the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Civil War, written with the perspective of someone deeply engaged in the political struggles of his time.
Melʹgunov studied history and became active in public life as well as scholarship. His career joined research, journalism, and political debate, and after leaving Soviet Russia he continued to write in exile, helping preserve an alternative record of revolutionary events for émigré readers and later historians.
He died in France in 1956. Today he remains especially notable for works that documented repression and political terror in the early Soviet period, making him an important, if strongly partisan, witness to one of the most turbulent chapters of modern Russian history.