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Concept
Vladimir Burtsev
Summary
Vladimir Lvovich Burtsev (Владимир Львович Бурцев; November 17, 1862 August 21, 1942) was a revolutionary activist, scholar, publisher and editor of several Russian language periodicals. He became famous by exposing a great number of agents provocateurs, notably Yevno Azef in 1908. Because of his own revolutionary activities and his harsh criticism of the imperial regime, including personal criticism of emperor Nicholas II, he was imprisoned several times in various European countries. In the course of his life, Burtsev fought oppressive policies from Tsarism in Imperial Russia, followed by the Bolsheviks and later Adolf Hitler's National Socialism.
Burtsev was born in Fort-Aleksandrovsky, in the Transcaspian Oblast of the Russian Empire (present-day Kazakhstan) to a military family. In 1882, he was expelled from Saint Petersburg State University and in 1885 from Kazan State University for taking part in student disturbances. As a member of Narodnaya Volya, he was imprisoned for two years (for about a year in the Peter and Paul Fortress) and in 1886 exiled to the Irkutsk region of Eastern Siberia.
In 1888 Burtsev managed to escape from exile and emigrate to Switzerland. In 1889 he co-founded magazine Svobodnaya Rossiya (Свободная Россия, A Free Russia) but it survived only three issues. "In 1890 . . . Burtsev, wanted by the czarist police, boarded a British boat bound from Constantinople to London. When the ship found itself surrounded by Turkish police vessels with Russians on board, the captain refused their demand to hand over the fugitive, announcing: “This is English territory. And I am a gentleman!”
In 1898, Burtsev was arrested by British police for advocating, in his magazine Narodovolets (Народоволец, A Member of Narodnaya Volya), the assassination of Nicholas II. Burtsev was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months at hard labour. On his release he went on to publish it in Switzerland, resulting in his permanent ban from that country.
In London, he published the two-volume book Za Sto Let (1800–1896) (За сто лет (1800–1896), For Hundred Years (1800–1896)).
Official source
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