Zinovieff, Kyril Lvovich (pseudonym FitzLyon)

Rossiia nakanune revoliutsii [Russia on the Eve of the Revolution]

London: Overseas Publications Interchange Ltd, 1983. Item #1439

123 pages. Series: Vchera, segodnia, zavtra; 1. Cover design by M. A. Pioro. ISBN 0-9500215-8-X. A very good copy with light faint edge toning.

First edition of a memoir-essay by émigré historian Kyril Lvovich Zinovieff (1904–1991), offering an evocative portrait of late imperial Russian society in the last decades of the Romanov dynasty. Based on Zinovieff’s earlier English-language work Before the Revolution (London, 1977), this Russian adaptation includes additional commentary and selective abridgment, focusing less on visuals and more on the author’s reflective, narrative approach to describing everyday life across class lines—from the court of Nicholas II to the peasantry. Originally intended for a Western audience, the Russian edition instead serves as a reintroduction to the domestic reader, particularly Soviet youth, who, as the author argues, were largely unfamiliar with the lived experience of prerevolutionary Russia. Avoiding political polemic, the author details the period from 1894 (the accession of Nicholas II) through the eve of World War I, analyzing social structure, economic developments, the peasantry’s migration movements, and the conditions of the Russian monarchy.

Price: $150.00