Melgunov, Sergei Petrovich

Born Dec. 25, 1879 (Jan. 6, 1880); died 1956. Russian historian and publicist. One of the leaders of the Popular Socialist Party.

Mel’gunov graduated from Moscow University in 1904. From 1900 to 1910 he contributed to the newspaper Russkie vedomosti (Russian Gazette). From 1913 to 1923, he was one of the editors of the journal Golos minuvshego (Voice of the Past) and director of the Zadruga Publishing House. Mel’gunov’s principal works on the history of the church and on the Russian social and revolutionary movement were written from a liberal-populist viewpoint. He contributed to the collective historical works The Great Reform (1911), The Patriotic War and Russian Society (1912), and Freemasonry: Its Past and Present (1912).

Mel’gunov reacted to the Great October Socialist Revolution with hostility. In 1923 he emigrated abroad, where he published a number of historical works that are valuable for their factual material. He also wrote several anti-Soviet books on the history of the February and October revolutions of 1917 and of the Civil War of 1918-20. He contributed to the journal Golos minuvshego na chuzhoi storone (Voice of the Past in a Foreign Land).