First published in 1961 The Unmentionable Nechaev presents a full account of Sergei Nechaev’s extraordinary life. Michael Prawdin expounds his teachings and shows the strain of Nechaevism running through the Russian revolutionary movement and the part it played in the success of the Bolshevik revolution.

First published in 1961 The Unmentionable Nechaev presents a full account of Sergei Nechaev’s extraordinary life. The name of Nechaev is little known today in the western world. Michael Prawdin expounds his teachings and shows the strain of Nechaevism running through the Russian revolutionary movement and the part it played in the success of the Bolshevik revolution. Step by step the author analyses Lenin’s build up of his party and reveals how he used Nechaev’s conspiratory system. The book explains why at the moment of victory Nechaev was suddenly hailed as an ancestor of Bolshevism only to be just as suddenly once more repudiated and relegated to obscurity. This book is an essential read for scholars and researchers of Soviet history, Communist history, and history in general.