Utin, Nikolai Isaakovich

Born July 27 (Aug. 8), 1841; died Nov. 19 (Dec. 1), 1883, in St. Petersburg. Russian revolutionary.

The son of a merchant who was a millionaire, Utin enrolled in the faculty of history and philology of Moscow University in 1858. In autumn 1861 he was arrested and expelled from the university for taking part in student unrest. He passed the examinations to receive his degree, however, in 1862. In March 1862, Utin joined the society Land and Liberty and in November of the same year he became a member of the society’s central committee.

Utin left Russia in May 1863 and became a leader of the Young Emigration. After becoming closely acquainted with A. I. Herzen and N. P. Ogarev in London in August 1863, Utin helped smuggle their publications into Russia. Shortly thereafter, however, because of political, ideological and personal differences, he parted ways with Herzen; in late 1864 and early 1865, Utin spoke out against Herzen’s positions at a congress of Russian émigrés in Geneva. In 1867 he joined the First International in Switzerland. From 1868 to 1870 he was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper Narodnoe delo, and he helped organize the Russian Section of the First International. In 1870 and 1871, Utin helped edit the newspaper L’Egalité, the organ of the Geneva Section of the First International. He was a delegate to the International’s conference held in London in 1871.

In the mid-1870’s, Utin gave up political activity. He submitted a petition for pardon in 1877. In January 1878, Utin returned to Russia and began working as an engineer in the Urals.