Talk:Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky

Would [1] be a suitable reference (despite the mis-spelling of his name)? Jackiespeel (talk) 15:44, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Karl Pearson

There is no indication on Karl Pearson's page of a link with either Sergey Stepnyak or the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom and the Russia Free Press. Further information required? Jackiespeel (talk) 10:26, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

On looking into the matter further there are a few references via Google books etc - a few references are required. Jackiespeel (talk) 18:02, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

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Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky (1851–1895) was a Ukrainian revolutionary mainly known for assassinating General Nikolai Mezentsov, the chief of Russia's Special Corps of Gendarmes and the head of the country's secret police, with a dagger in the streets of Saint Petersburg in 1878. After the killing, he exposed himself to danger by remaining in Russia, and he left the country in the fall of 1878. He settled for a short time in Switzerland, then a favourite resort of revolutionary leaders, and after a few years came to London. He was already known in England for Underground Russia, which had been published in London in 1882. The book was followed by a number of other works on the condition of the Russian peasantry, on nihilism, and on the conditions of life in Russia. Russian anarchist leader Peter Kropotkin, who knew Stepnyak personally, testified to his character: "He was a stranger to the feeling of fear; it was as foreign to him as colors are to a person born blind. He was ready to risk his life every moment. Egotism as well as narrow partisanship was unknown to him; he believed that in a movement to defeat oppression there are always parties and factions with differences of opinion. ... He also could not understand why there should be strife among the various parties, since all are involved in the struggle against a common enemy." This photograph of Stepnyak was taken in the 1880s.

Photograph credit: Elliott & Fry; restored by Adam Cuerden

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Adam Cuerden ^(talk)_{Has about 8.7% of all FPs.} 07:54, 10 January 2024 (UTC)

'Sergey Stepnyak-Kravchinsky was a Ukrainian revolutionary...'

This description, while technically correct - he was from Ukraine and he was a revolutionary - seems to create a somewhat misleading impression. It sounds as if his revolutionary activity had something to do with his Ukrainian origins and was dedicated to the Ukrainian national cause. This is what people can imagine in the context of present-day events when they read about a Ukrainian killing a Russian official. The cause that Stepnyak-Kravchinsky actually fought for was that of the Narodniks - a majority-Russian movement for the establishment of democracy and socialism (with local characteristics) in the Russian Empire. 'A Ukrainian narodnik revolutionary' would perhaps be a more adequate description. Even that sounds a bit too much as if he identified as ethnically Ukrainian, which may or may not be true for all I know, but I suspect that the description has been chosen just based on the location of his birth, and that isn't a sufficient reason to assume that he identified so. 62.73.69.121 (talk) 21:33, 23 February 2024 (UTC)