Savinkov, Boris Viktorovich

(1879–1925)

   As a member of the Battle Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Savinkov carried out a number of terrorist acts under the direction of Yevno Azev. After being imprisoned in a Sevastopol prison, Savinkov escaped with the aid of a dissident sailor and made his way 300 kilometers in an open boat to Romania. Following the February 1917 revolution, Savinkov returned to Russia to serve as deputy minister of war in the provisional government. The civil war forced Savinkov to emigrate, and he worked with a number of Western governments against Moscow. As a result of a clever Cheka provocation, the Trust, Savinkov was lured back into the country in 1924. He was immediately arrested, and he made a full confession of his crimes at a public trial. Shortly after his trial, Savinkov committed suicide or was murdered in the Lubyanka prison.

   Savinkov was a revolutionary polymath, at home in terrorist planning rooms as well as Winston Churchill’s offices. His novel Pale Horse is an excellent description of the prerevolutionary terrorist movement.