Sergei Petrovich Degaev

Born 1857; died 1920. Member of the organization People’s Will in Russia and agent provocateur.

Degaev joined the revolutionary movement in 1878 while a student at the Mikhailovskii Artillery Academy in St. Petersburg. In the fall of 1882 he became a member of the executive committee of the People’s Will. That same year he was recruited by the St. Petersburg secret police and betrayed a large group of revolutionaries, among them V. N. Figner. In the summer of 1883, Degaev confessed to treachery and was sentenced to exile by members of the People’s Will. Degaev died in America.