About the Author
VICTOR SERGE (1890-1947), a Belgian-born Russian, was politically active in seven countries, participated in three revolutions, and spent more than ten years in various captivities. He published more than thirty books and left behind a huge, unpublished library estate. He was born in Belgian political exile (his parents were Russian anarchists implicated in the 1881 assassination of Tsar Alexander II) and died in exile in Mexico. He was the French translator of the works of Lenin, Trotsky, and Zinoviev; and the author of a splendid history of the first year of the Russian Revolution, countless political and literary essays, and three novels of the revolutionary movement.
SUSAN WEISSMAN teaches Russian politics at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California. Once Gorbachev allowed some of the blank spots in Soviet history to be filled in, she began a campaign to rescue the manuscripts stolen from Serge when he was expelled in 1936. The search for the manuscripts continues with a team of researchers from Russia and a dedicated group of Serge scholars and enthusiasts abroad. Her book on Serge, THE COURSE IS SET ON HOPE, was published in 1995.