Conclusion

This chapter reflects on some of the problems involved in writing a biography of a figure like Volkhovskii, given the changing focus of his activities, but suggesting that his life can serve as a prism through which to view the Russian revolutionary movement before 1917. Volkhovskii’s revolutionary career was shaped as much by contingencies as it was by deliberate planning. He was instinctively sceptical about the importance of the ideological differences that often split the revolutionary movement, believing that the shared commitment to overthrowing the tsarist government could provide a source of unity. The development of Volkhovskii’s revolutionary career was shaped above all by his loathing of the tsarist government and his commitment to helping those subject to poverty and oppression. Volkhovskii’s life can serve as a reminder that the history of the Russian revolutionary movement is a history of individuals as much as ideologies and organisations. It also serves as a reminder of the danger of a teleological reading of history in which the triumph of Bolshevism in 1917 appears inevitable. The development of the Russian revolutionary movement was shaped above all by the vagaries of chance and the character and outlook of its supporters.